On 29 April 2020, the Belgian Air Component executed the first training flight with the recently contracted Falcon 7X. The training took place at Kleine-Brogel air base located only around 40 km from EATC (European Air Transport Command)'s headquarters and the flight was executed under operational control of EATC.

Falcon 7X (Picture source: Dassault)

The Dassault Falcon 7X is a large-cabin, 5,950 nautical miles (11,020 km) range business jet manufactured by Dassault Aviation, the 2nd largest of its Dassault Falcon line. The aircraft will add new transatlantic capacity in the Belgian Air Force’s transport fleet.

“The table top exercise was most beneficial and valuable to the 15th Wing and to EATC. Together we identified useful lessons learned and today, we may say that EATC is ready to exercise operational control over these two new assets” says Belgian Major Avi Marc Charlier, Deputy Head Employment Branch.

Like the Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft, the Falcon 7X will be operated from the Melsbroek Air Base.