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As Europe looks to the Indo-Pacific, so does the Luftwaffe
STUTTGART, Germany — The German Air Force is preparing to send fighters, tankers and transport aircraft across the world to the Asia-Pacific region in a little less than a year, as its
colleagues in the European Union continue to assess how the bloc should increase its involvement in the region.
The Luftwaffe will deploy six Eurofighter aircraft, three Airbus A330 tankers and three A400M transport aircraft in support of Australia’s Pitch Black exercise, scheduled for Sept. 5-23, 2022. The typically biennial exercise was canceled in 2020, and next year’s edition will be the first since 2018.
Germany is ready to play a bigger role in the Indo-Pacific region, and will start with this initial sortie next fall before developing a more long-term plan, said Air Force Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ingo Gerhartz.
This is the Air Force’s “first and biggest deployment” of air assets to the Asia-Pacific region, Gerhartz said in an interview with Defense News in October at the Luftwaffe’s Neuburg Air Base in Bavaria.. “It’s a strong signal to show our valued partners in the Indo-Pacific that we are with them.”…..
The Air Force’s deployment exercise is based on a series of policy guidelines for the region published by the German government in September 2020.
“With the rise of Asia, the political and economic balance is increasingly shifting towards the Indo-Pacific,” the Luftwaffe spokesperson said. “The region is becoming the key to shaping the international order in the 21st century.”….