The first official foreign participant of NATO Days in Ostrava 2010 will be a first time participant at the same time – and it will be a Belgian F-16 Solo Display Team that will present itself at NATO Days in Ostrava for the first time.

„We are really glad, that the Belgian F-16 demo team will finally come to Ostrava. Our visitors could have already seen a demo display of the Dutch F-16 Demo Team and in 2007 also of the American Viper East F-16 Demo Team, so this is going to be the third version of the F-16 dynamics display available for our visitors,“ reacted Zbyněk Pavlačík, the chairman of the Jagello 2000 Association, which organizes the show.

Belgium took part in NATO Days in Ostrava for the first time last year, when a double-seat F-16 BM was showed at a static display and a light helicopter Agusta A-109 at dynamic and static displays.

Belgium was together with the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway the first foreign user of F-16, one of the most widely used combat aircrafts in the world. The Belgian air force ordered 160 F-16s in A and B versions in the late 1970s and after the end of the Cold War the number of Belgian F-16 was reduced to the current 72, that have gradually been upgraded to the F-16 MLU (Mid-Life-Update) version. This figure will be lowered to the final number of 60 aircrafts.

Belgian F-16s are regularly being deployed to NATO missions – for example in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and also to Air Policing Mission in the Baltic States.

Official websites of the F-16 Solo Display Team can be found here  (f16demo.be).

Written by: Pavel Doško

See you at the 10^th NATO Days in Ostrava,
1^st Czech Air Force Days,
and AirIn Fair 2010!