Falcon Leap 2021 Eindhoven AB, Netherlands September 6 -17
During Falcon Leap, cooperation between paratroopers is the focus and processes within the para-world are aligned. Of course, it is also an opportunity to get acquainted with each other’s equipment. There are a thousand parachutists and other specialists from no fewer than eleven different countries: Netherlands France, Germany, Italy, the United States, Poland, the Czech Republic, Great Britain and Belgium. Newcomers were Greece and Portugal.
The first week was mainly spent practicing the dropping of cargo and goods. For example, eighty closed container delivery systems in which vulnerable goods can be dropped. These could be food, relief supplies or ammunition. For the first time, a cargo of over a thousand kilograms was dropped.
It was also the first time that a cross load was performed, with Dutch cargo being dropped by a Polish transport aircraft.
The second week of Falcon Leap was mainly about dropping paratroopers. This happened at various locations such as the Ginkel Heath, Heteren, Houtdorperveld, Renkum, the Marnewaard and across the border in Belgium at the Hechtel Heath. The soldiers jumped from airplanes as well as, and this is special, from helicopters. The helicopters operated from the nearby Volkel Air Base.
The weeks of practice were concluded with the annual commemoration of Operation Market Garden, which included a parachute drop on the Ginkel Heath.
Photos Rob Vogelaar
