Air Base: Further elements strengthen the location
Created: 04/13/2022, 10:20 am
By: Wolfgang Becker
Special work platforms on aircraft, for example here for training on the Eurofighter in Kaufbeuren, are also part of the range of services offered by the workshop for teaching materials.
© Bundeswehr/R.
ostrich
Kaufbeuren – The Kaufbeuren air base will be further strengthened.
This emerges from a response from the Ministry of Defense that MdB Stephan Stracke (CSU) received due to a recent request.
Accordingly, parts of the radar device training previously stationed in Lechfeld will be re-established in Kaufbeuren.
In addition, the Air Force training materials workshop (LmWLw), which belongs to the South Department of the Air Force Technical Training Center (Abt Süd TAZLw), will be relocated from its previous location in Fürstenfeldbruck to Kaufbeuren.
"This means that the location with almost 700 posts has finally and permanently been consolidated," says the Kaufbeuren member of the Bundestag happily.
There are still no documents available for further stationing plans.
After the location decision to close the traditional military facility in 2011, it was a bad year for the employees at the Kaufbeur air base and also for the location itself. Especially since there was particularly good cooperation between soldiers and civilians in the garrison town for decades.
A first ray of hope opened up in July 2019, when the decision was made to continue technical training on the Tornado Weapon System (TOR) until at least 2028.
At the beginning of 2021, after an examination of the economic efficiency - after significant support from Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz as Air Force Inspector - the eagerly awaited ministerial decision came to leave the technical training on the Eurofighter (EF) in Kaufbeuren,
Teaching aid workshop is coming
Eurofighter at an air base.
© Felix Hörhager/dpa
The organizational structure at the air base has now “consolidated further”, as Stracke explained in an interview with the district messenger.
The original plan was to relocate the Luftwaffe's teaching materials workshop to Untermeitingen.
As State Secretary Siemtje Möller writes to Stracke, the ministry has now decided to relocate the Luftwaffe's teaching aids workshop (LmWLw), which has been under the control of Abbot Süd TAZLw in organizational terms since 2017, to Kaufbeuren.
This is about 30 posts.
The teaching aid workshop only produces training aids that are not available through the supply chain and are required individually for individual teaching purposes.
The facility, which consists of several workshops, such as construction, carpentry, paint shop, steel construction, plumbing, mechanics and CNC technology, develops and builds training materials for lessons, display boards and small models, right through to a true-to-life replica of an airplane.
This also includes special work platforms.
"everything smoothed out"
"The need-based and high-quality technical aircraft training at the Kaufbeuren site will thus be continued without interruption," writes the general inspector Eberhard Zorn in his daily order of April 4, 2022. "All formal decisions have been made and everything is smooth," says Stracke happily, " the clock has been set back to what it was before closing.” This means that a total of 690 posts are planned for Kaufbeuren in the future.
In addition, there are more than 3,000 course participants every year.
However, the training workshop for aircraft mechanics and electronics, which was once relocated from Kaufbeuren to Lechfeld, is not affected by the decisions.
basic training
The weapon system-wide, i.e. not type-specific, basic aircraft training according to European and national standards also remains exclusively in the hands of the Bundeswehr at the TAZLw.
The radar device training, previously in small parts in Lechfeld, will be carried out completely in Kaufbeuren again in the future.
Further future
The planned stationing of a medical regiment and a military police company is open in terms of time.
“The 'Fliegerhorst Kaufbeuren' property is still intended to accommodate forces from the organizational areas of the Bundeswehr's central medical service and the armed forces base.
So far, there are no planning documents for stationing organizational elements of these organizational areas in Kaufbeuren,” was the response to the corresponding request from MP Stracke.
How the training for the planned procurement project for the American model F-35 will turn out is still completely open.
“You have to wait and see here, the talks are only just beginning,” said Stracke.
But it is also important to him that the process of de-designating the runway at the air base, which has already been initiated, has been stopped for the time being, which is sure to “enjoy the Kaufbeuren air sports club”.
Untermeitingen
After the stationing of A400 M in Lechfeld was recently withdrawn (we reported), the location is still in view.
"Untermeitingen, with the Lechfeld airfield, remains an important location for the Bundeswehr," says the Inspector General's order of the day, "it will continue to be kept in focus for future stationing decisions on organizational elements and for the operation of aircraft."
