The fuel section at F 21 is a part of the logistics department of the Swedish Defence Forces, FMLOG, and is a part of the Luleå stores section.
”During Loyal Arrow, we have borrowed staff from the whole of the country,” says Mr. Lundberg, “normally we are eight people working here, but during the exercise we are twenty. Beside the staff we have borrowed from other places in Norrbotten, there are also people from Östersund and Ronneby. In addition we have people from some of the participating nations helping us with the fuel supply.”
Flying goes on every day from morning till late at night, and to support the activities the staff is divided into several shifts to cope with all the refuelling.
“In total there are 16 fuel truck drivers to make sure that the aircraft get their fuel, the other four take care of administration and refilling of the fuel trucks here at the filling unit,” Mr. Lundberg continues. “Everything moves at top speed after each flight. When the aircraft have taxied in, the ground crews call us from the parking area to inform us about the aircraft type and the amount of fuel they need.”
During the interview taken just after 5 p.m., the fuel supply staff was extremely busy - four trucks were driving on the apron refuelling eight aircraft that just had returned from a mission.
Some 20 minutes later, the supply mission was accomplished; the fuel trucks went back to the fuel depot to fill their tanks to wait for the next refuelling call. This procedure is repeated continuously every single day during the exercise – without fuel no jet would take off during Exercise Loyal Arrow 2009.