(ANGB) Wunstorf airbase 

Home of the Luftwaffe LTG62 (A400M). During Air Defender 2023 this base was the nucleus of the Air National Guard units C130's. Supplemented by a Romanian C27J Spartan. Every day these aircraft were used for droppings, AAR (A400M) and daily support transport sorties  between all other German bases. 

Participants consisted of 1 Romanian C27J of Esc902 and 8 ANG Herculesses of 8 different guard units originating from Delaware, Nevada, Illinois, Wyoming, Georgia, Minnesota, Kentucky and Texas. On this particular day (14th june 2023) 6 out of 8 Herculesses flew together with the C27J Partan and an A400M. Unfortunately the special tail A400M did not fly during the first (early) wave. 

On the 29th of May 2023 all 8 Herculesses coudl be seen departing CONUS from their 8 different state homebases. Planning and scheduling was the training/ try out exercise - during a real support action this would have been multiple Herculesses coming together from all different states. Quite impressive.

Air Defender 2023 Herculesses flew with 'Torch' callsigns, the C27J as 'Metal' and the A400M as 'Arctos' and other names. During this day a a single A330MRTT of the international MMU passed at FL320. Many A400M's and A33MRTT's could be seen above Hohn and Schleswig-Jagel refuelling participating figthers flying CAP missions.