King Willem-Alexander visited the Eindhoven Air Base on Thursday morning. He flew with Falcon Leap during the international airborne exercise. During that exercise, soldiers train the dropping of parachutists and cargo above the Netherlands. The most famous part of this exercise is the mass landing on the Ginkelse Heide near Ede next Saturday for the commemoration of Operation Market Garden.
The king’s visit was kicked off with a briefing about the large -scale exercise. He then talked to parachutists and received an explanation of the packaging of freight and the implementation of a so -called ‘wave’, where several planes in formation perform a dropping.
Then Willem-Alexander stepped on board a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft to experience a dropping up close. In the cockpit he received an explanation about the performance of the operation.
Exercise with international participation
Falcon Leap is held by soldiers from the Airmobile Brigade and the Air Mobility Command (AMC). The exercise is from 8 to 20 September and has participants from a total of twelve countries, including Belgium, Germany, France, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States. By training together with staff, equipment and aircraft, the participating countries improve their cooperation and employability.
The exercise came from the annual commemoration of Operation Market Garden in the Second World War. Then Allied airborne troops tried to conquer bridges in the Netherlands on Nazi Germany. Many soldiers were killed during the operation.
Two weeks of airborne operations
The first week of Falcon Leap was dominated by a large -scale airborne operation above the Marnewaard in Groningen, in which about five hundred soldiers were dropped with parachute. In addition, supplies and heavy equipment were supplied from the air.
Foreign land units were added in the second week and is practiced on a larger scale, including on Twente Airport and the Ginkelse Heide.
Falcon Leap will end on Saturday with the annual commemoration of Operation Market Garden. Then around seven hundred soldiers from different countries with parachutes land on the Ginkelse Heide near Ede, the historic land where fierce fighting in 1944.