2025 Falcon Spring in the Netherlands

From 12 until 23 May 2025 the northern part of the Netherlands formed the training area for exercise Falcon Spring. Around 1500 troops and 20 helicopters of both the Royal Netherlands Air & Space Force (RNLASF) and the US Army Europe operated together in this large scale air assault exercise.

Planning

The planning of the exercise started well over a year ago and was in the hands of the 13^th Infantry Battalion, based at the Assen Army Barracks. This northern battalion, as part of the 11 Air Manoeuvre Brigade (11AMB), played a home game as the exercise was concentrated in the north of the Netherlands in the provinces of Friesland, Groningen en Drenthe. Being close to the staging area offered a number of advantages in terms of travelling, visibility to the public and training space as the North is less populated. The exercise served as preparation of the 13^th Infantry Battalion for their NATO certification during exercise Falcon Autumn  in October in Poland.

The higher control of exercise Falcon Spring lay in the hands of the 11^th AMB under command of General Grandia, commander of the 11^th AAB and his deputy commander Commodore Schipmölder, commander of DHC. Lieutenant Colonel Haspels, commander of the 13^th Infantry Battalion, acted as Leader of the Exercise, closely working together with Lieutenant Colonel De Waij, leader of the DHC detachment and Lieutenant Colonel Meijer, leader of the 12^th CAB detachment.

“The scenario for the exercise has similarities to the situation currently evolving in the Eastern parts of Europe”,  explained Lt. Col. Haspels. “An enemy force approaching from Germany has reached the Dutch border and special units have entered the Netherlands to take over strategic objects. Our forces must conquer back our positions and stop the enemy forces to further advance.”

To increase the reality and difficulty of the scenarios, the objectives were located outside the regular military training grounds during the first week of the exercise and spread out over the area close to villages and cities. During the exercise all aspects of air mobility were practiced such as air assault, air manoeuvre, medevac and establishing forward staging areas.

Exercise Falcon Spring

The exercise started on Monday in the first week at the staging area at Leeuwarden Airbase, where the troops received their first mission orders to start their planning. The troops were notified in advance about possible actions, however, they would receive their orders shortly before to create realism and difficulty. The first large scale air assault operation on battalion level took place at a former munition complex in the province of Drenthe, from where enemy forces planned and executed their hostile actions. On early Wednesday afternoon around 400 troops were dropped of by American UH-60V “Blackhawks” and CH-47F “Chinooks” in the vicinity of the objective, named Silver, which had to be secured by 5.00 pm.

The second large air assault on battalion level was again performed in the south of the province of Drenthe a day later, where troops had to secure a bridge and a water lock near Ossesluis. Again the troops were transported by American helicopters for the assault, after which RNLASF “Chinooks” brought in the necessary supplies by sling load. The next day the troops were picked up again by the helicopters.

In the second week the troops had to conquer the village of Marnehuizen, which is located in the middle of a large military training area. The troops had to clear the village from enemy forces, training to fight in an urban environment. At 02.30 am around 400 troops and material were transported in three waves by American and Dutch helicopters to the area, where the attack began at dawn. The attack was supported from the air by Dutch “Apache” helicopters shaping the area and both simulated and real air assets such as the American operated MQM-107 Streaker UAV, the X-300 Integrator Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), the MQ-9 “Reaper” Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and a L-39 “Albatross” simulating a F-16. After the attack was over the troops had to build up their defense as they had to retain their positions overnight, while being under attack by enemy forces using CV-90 Combat Vehicles.  

The final air assault attacks of the exercise were on Wednesday when two objectives (a farmhouse and a former ammunition depot) were attacked by a compagnie. The exercise ended at the staging area at Leeuwarden Airbase with a roll call, thanking the troops for their hard work and exchanging gifts between the participating units.

RNLASF participation

Responsible for the DHC participation was Lt.Col. De Waij, liaison officer from the Royal Netherlands Army and Heads of Planning within DHC. His main training goals for the exercise were to operate in the so-called three squadrons-concept and operating from forward operating bases out in the field, while maintaining the quality of flight operations.

During wartime operations all support teams within the Helicopter Command, such as logistics, maintenance, communication, fire department, healthcare and air traffic control, will fall under the specially formed Combat Service Support Squadron (CCS Sqn). Under the adage train as you fight the CCS Sqn was activated, closely working together with the 298 Squadron, operating CH-47F “Chinook” helicopters and 301 Squadron, operating AH-64E “Apache” helicopters, in the so-called three squadrons-concept. In the Cold War period the RNLASF used to operate in a similar way, however, with the increased focus on the main task of defending the homeland, this concept has been revitalized. The DHC participated with around 350 personnel in the exercise, four CH-47F “Chinook” and three AH-64E “Apache” helicopters.

The CCS Sqn was responsible for setting up the staging area at Leeuwarden Airbase within 24 hours (housing, electricity and communications). Besides, the CCS Sqn had to unfold three Tactical Assembly Areas (TAA) during the exercise. TAA’s are temporary, well equipped base camps, which are crucial for long-term deployment in hostile territory. From the TAA the Forward Arming and Refueling Points (FARP) were set up to provide the helicopters with the necessary fuel. Locations for the TAA’s were Drachten airport, Havelte Army Barracks and Marnehuizen. The FARP’s were set up on different locations in the area.

The helicopters operated from the TAA’s working on their own training objectives and supporting the battalion during their air assault missions. 301 Squadron brought the recently introduced Apache Echo model to the exercise. The helicopter is a complete new weapon system compared to the D-model and has far more capabilities with its radar, offering advantages in shaping  the battle grounds.

The presence of the Apache during the air assault missions was less visible to the public as the helicopters operated from a further distance than in the past, proving their offensive capabilities deeper in the terrain earlier in the fight.

Additionally to avoid noise disturbance the Apaches trained some of their scenarios as part of the operations in different time frames as the transport helicopters.

As the CCS Sqn is a relative new concept again for DHC, the participating support units obviously still lacked the necessary experience. The exercise proved an interesting learning ground in terms of mutual experience, cooperation and communication. Lt.Col. de Waij explained: “In the recent past we mainly operated outside the Netherlands in peace keeping missions. With the renewed focus on our main task, we need to train in different ways operating in our own country. This exercise with three different TAA’s provided a strategic essential and realistic scenario, which offered us the best experience to adopt, adapt and improve”.

Especially the TAA at Havelte was an interesting training place. Lt.Col. De Waij continued: “The TAA at Havelte was a fantastic learning experience where we learned that we have to give the CCS Squadron a leading role to take the control and coordinate the incoming movements of all air assets at the TAA. The experiences we gained during the first TAA at Drachten airport were immediately applied. ”With the recent operation Spider’s Web in mind - the covert drone attack carried by the Ukraine deep in Russia on June 1^st, 2025 – , the possible thread of drone attacks is a very realistic one. With all helicopters in the same area, albeit spread out, both passive and active countermeasures were taken such as camouflage and active drone coverage over the TAA. Furthermore, the war in Ukraine also leads to continuous strategic thinking within DHC about the theme security, where drones play an important part.

During the weekend the time was used to prepare the main assault at Marnehuizen. The command of the exercise built a sand table model of area of operations and village in the forest, which was used for the Combined Arms Rehearsal briefing. Both flying detachments practiced an Air Mission Coordination meeting and the technicians were capable of training the maintenance of helicopters out in the field. Although it did not affect the overall exercise, all American Chinooks broke down in the weekend and were unable to participate in the second week, causing some extra challenges for the technicians.

12^th CAB

Just like the 2022 edition the 12^th Combat Aviation Brigade of the US Army Europe, operating from Wiesbaden, Germany, joined the exercise with its helicopters. A total of six UH-60V “Blackhawk”, two medevac HH-60M “Blackhawk”  and five CH-47F “Chinook” helicopters participated from its Forward Operating Base in the Marnewaard, a military training complex in the most northern part of the Netherlands offering the right privacy and training location. The Americans arrived in the week previously to the exercise working on their own training program.

Commander of the American detachment was Lt. Col. Meijer, normally commanding the 1^st Battalion, 214^th Aviation Regiment. He explained: “During the exercise we trained a lot of realistic scenarios in day and night operations. The 11^th AMB and 12^th CAB have been working closely for many years, we consider them our preferred allies, as the Dutch are very capable partners.”

For refueling of the helicopters the 12^th CAB brought their own FARP team with fuel trucks and equipment. Both the RNLAF and US Army helicopters used their own refueling points located over the countryside. Although both armed forces are capable of using the same FARP, the RNLASF decided to operate its own refueling points as DHC is working on a renewed FARP concept with more mobility and hence increasing unpredictability.

Lessons learned

As the exercise has ended it is time to work on the lessons learned. Lt.Col. De Waij looks back with a very positive feeling about the warm welcome they received by the public and authorities in the North, despite noise disturbance due to night and low level operations. He is very proud of the quality of the aircrews, who are capable of tactical operations flying low, fast and at night in the best possible way. However, he acknowledges that DHC further has to work on out of area operations under more primitive circumstances. The acquired experience for the CCS Sqn is of incredible value to all units involved, realizing the importance of training, “exercise makes perfect”.

Lt.Col. Haspels elaborated: “The size of this exercise has really proved again how important it is to train all assets and units together. It has been the first time in my career that all participating units brought in their own training objectives and formed a part of the complete integrated training picture, an unique opportunity! To my opinion wars are won by building relationships, knowing each other well and closely working together, more than tactics and techniques. When things go wrong, nine out of ten times it is because a lack of coordination and communication!”