Belçika, 37 yılın ardından Soğuk Savaş hava savunma filosunu canlandırdı

Belgium has brought back the 51st Squadron, an air defense unit that guarded NATO airspace with Nike Hercules missiles during the Cold War, after 37 years without it. Defense Minister Theo Francken said that the Belgian Air Force reactivated the squadron on November 9 at a ceremony at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, and that the unit will once again be responsible for the country's ground-based air defense. The squadron will operate the new systems Belgium is buying under its "Blue Dome" plan: 10 NASAMS missile systems, 20 Skyranger 30 anti-aircraft guns, 14 modern radars and 54 command vehicles, all linked into a single network. Francken said the Skyranger contract was being signed the same day. "Rebuilding an air defense, starting from zero, is no small task," Francken said. The 51st Squadron was formed in 1959 and equipped with Nike Hercules surface-to-air missiles to help protect NATO airspace against Soviet bombers. It was disbanded after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the rest of Belgium's ground-based air defense was gradually phased out in the years that followed. Since then, Belgium has relied largely on its fighter jets to defend its airspace. The new systems are designed to work in layers. NASAMS, built by Norway's Kongsberg with Raytheon, fires missiles that Francken said can intercept cruise missiles, fighter jets and helicopters at ranges of up to 50 km (31 miles). Rheinmetall's Skyranger 30 is a turret with a radar-guided 30 mm