Air Defender 2023 Hohn

Hohn airbase 

Hohn airbase was a temporary inactive airbase activated especially for Air Defender 2023. Formerly operating C160 Transalls of LTG63 this airbase has a single runway which can be entirely seen from the Southern side - perfect for photographing. I also found this to be the best airbase during this exercise: it would be the homebase for a large number of Air National Guard F15 Eagles and US Navy Super Hornets and Growlers of the USS Gerald R. Ford. Next to these exotic types/ units a detachmentof Finnish (legacy) Hornets and British RAF Typhoons operated out of Hohn. 

The US Navy aircraft consisted of some special aircraft; one of them being the (Growler) CAG-bird. The ANG Eagles also came with two aircraft with other (very rare/ special) unit markings: one with ZZ (Kadena airbase 44FS - Japan) and one with OT (Nellis AFB, 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron) markings - both extremely rare to be seen in Europe.


Small account of F15C photo's can be seen beneath - click here for the complete F15 Eagle photo report

All participating F15C's of the 131th Fighter Squadron / Massachusetts  Air National Guard:

84-0010 / MA 84-0016 / MA 85-0101 / MA 85-0110 / ZZ
85-0126 / OT 86-0154 / MA 86-0163 / MA 86-0168 / MA

 

All participating F15C's of the 122nd Fighter Squadron / Louisiana  Air National Guard:

82-0009 / JZ 82-0010 / JZ 82-0017 / JZ 83-0010 / JZ
83-0036 / JZ 83-0041 / JZ 84-0022 / JZ 85-0112 / JZ

Small account of US Navy Super Hornet and Growler photo's can be seen beneath - click here for the complete F18 photo report

All participating aircraft from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) (all part of Carrier Air Wing 8 - NAS Oceana):

EA-18G VAQ-142 "Gray Wolves" 166943 / AJ-500 Commander Air Group bird
EA-18G VAQ-142 "Gray Wolves" 168271 / AJ-503
F/A-18F VFA-213 "Black Lions" 166626 / AJ-210
F/A-18F VFA-213 "Black Lions" 168930 / AJ-213
F/A-18E VFA-31 "Tomcatters" 166781 / AJ-305
F/A-18E VFA-31 "Tomcatters" 166840 / AJ-307
F/A-18E VFA-37 "Raging Bulls" 169398 / AJ-404
F/A-18E VFA-37 "Raging Bulls" 166867 / AJ-107

*side note: VFA-37 "Raging Bulls" also participated the Volkit  exercise held in 1992 at Volkel air base, 31 years ago. See the Volkit photo report for photographs of the legacy F/A-18C this unit flew during the 90's era.