Those closely following the first and last stages of each iteration of Sea Breeze – the deployment of exercise forces before the start of operations and their subsequent withdrawal after the manoeuvres have ended – are familiar with the existence of an ‘invisible’ air component.
These are the transports, arriving at Odessa IAP to deliver and retrieve the equipment and/ or personnel for the exercise. This year the US Marine Corps unit attending the exercise arrived from Norway and most of its equipment also came from there, aboard USAF C-130J-30s of the 37th Airlift Squadron (AS) ‘Blue Tail Flies’ from the 86th Airlift Wing (AW) at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. They took up their equipment at Værnes Air Station, collocated with Trondheim Airport in Norway – here, large quantities of USMC weapons, vehicles, equipment and ammunition are stockpiled as part of Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway (MCPP-N). Two aircraft were involved in the delivery process, making a total of four flights to Odessa IAP – 06-8611 (c/n 382-5619) came in three times between June 27 and 29 (one flight each day), while 15-5831 (c/n 382-5831) arrived on July 1.
Four flights were required to return the equipment to Norway –…
