Operation "Northern Falcon"

Operation "Northern Falcon (Північний сокіл) is a joint Ukrainian-Danish operation for the transportation of fuel from the US Air Force "Thule" to the Danish Polar Station "Nord" by the military transport aircraft IL-76MD of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It has been conducted annually since 2009.

History
The operation has been organized for the tenth year in row as part of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ukrainian and Danish defence ministries.

Into Operation “Northern falcon – 2011” was involved 29 Ukrainian servicemen. Two flight crews, led by commanders Guard Lieutenant Colonel Vadym Yeroshkin and Vlodymyr Buhalskyi, engineering staff of the airlift brigade of the Air Forces of Ukraine, deployed in Melitopol. Also, the working group included officers-coordinators of the Command Air Forces of Ukraine.

On March 14 2019 the joint Ukrainian-Danish operation “Northern Falcon – 2019” on fuel transportation to Greenland Island has started. In the framework of this operation the group of Ukrainian aviators, with Colonel Serhii Artemenko as a Detachment Commander, has left Ukraine from the military platform of the airport Boryspil to the Kingdom of Denmark by the aircraft IL-76MD. In general, 23 Ukrainian military men were involved for the “Northern Falcon - 2019 " operation. After arriving at Aalborg airbase of the Royal Air Force of Denmark, the aircraft IL-76MD of the Ukrainian Air Force today went to the Island of Greenland.

The joint Ukrainian and Danish operation “Northern Falcon -2019” is going on during March and April of 2019. In the framework of this operation it is planned to transport 700 thousand liters of fuel and other cargo from US Air Force airbase “Thule” to the Danish polar Station “Nord” in Greenland Island.

In Greenland Ukrainian military pilots perform tasks in difficult Arctic climatic conditions: -50 °C air temperature, wind speed of 15-20 meters per second and without ground-based radio navigation equipment and spare airfields.