31 Squadron history

concise 31 Squadron history

By order AO46/51 of 9 July 1951, instructions were given to form the 10th Fighter Wing, with three squadrons.

1 September 1951 was chosen as the founding date and the different initial locations for the squadrons were established: the 23rd Sqn will be stationed at Chièvres Airbase, the 27th Sqn at Florennes and the 31st Sqn at Beauvechain operating the Spitfire Mk.XIV.

31 Squadron flew some 151 missions with the famous legend of the Second World War. The last flight of this aircraft took place on 7 July 1952.

From that moment on, no more aircraft were assigned to the Squadron and the pilots were divided among the 23rd & 27th Squadrons.

The order stated furthermore that all 3 squadrons shall be equipped with F-84E Thunderjets in 1952 and from then on will operate from a still to be determined location.

On 20 December 1952, the Squadron relocated to Chièvres AB, to finally form, together with 23rd Squadron and 27th Squadron, the 10th Wing, starting off with a dozen Spitfire XIV, a single T-6 Harvard and some Airspeed AS.40 Oxford's.

In the second part of 1952 a group of pilots is send to Florennes to convert to F-84G Thunderjet.

Operational life in the 10th Wing is mainly centered around the 27th Sqn, the other two squadrons basically exist on paper only.

In the second part of 1952 a group of pilots is send to Florennes to convert to F-84G Thunderjet.

The official move of the three squadrons to the assigned new airbase Kleine-Brogel starts on 23 February 1953. The 23rd and 27th Sqn set off on 27 February, the 31st Sqn on 20 March (23 and 31 without airplanes). Although these are the official dates, three formations of jets, ten in total, already leave Chièvres for Kleine-Brogel one day earlier.

But the brand new taxi tracks at Kleine-Brogel soon were showing cracks and started to crumble. This is a very dangerous situation for the jet engines of the brand new aircraft. Due to this hazard, the 23rd and 27th Squadrons move on 28 May 1953 to RAF Geilenkirchen, Germany. They are followed on 29 October by the 31st. That same day first flight with the F-84G new aircraft took place.

19 December 1953 however, the 31st Squadron was already reassigned back to Kleine-Brogel, but without aircraft, and reformed as ‘Flight VZZ’ (Viegen zonder zicht - Instrument Flight Instruction) on the Lockheed T-33.

The 31st Sqn deploys to Weelde (B), an auxiliary airfield, on 1 June 1954 and from 20 October 1954 they operate out of Bierset Airbase (B). A nomadic period starts and will last until the construction works in Kleine-Brogel are finished. Only command and maintenance personnel remain on the home base.

Just a few weeks later, the first F-84G Thunderjet was delivered to the Squadron.

Towards the end of 1955, the T-33 was retired.

The Republic F-84G "Thunderjet" in turn was replaced in 1955 by the more powerful F-84E "Thunderjet".

Finally, on 1 February 1955, the 31st Squadron moved to Kleine-Brogel where it is still stationed to this day.

They made the transition to the F-84F Thunderstreak in 1956. On this aircraft, the pilots flew a total of 37,000 hours.

The Tigers were also assigned to NATO’s “ACE mobile Force” (AMF).

On 19 July 1961, 31 Squadron participated for the first time in the “Tiger Meet” organised by the RAF and held at Woodbridge UK and thus was one of the founding members of the Nato Tiger Association.

In March 1964, the Squadron converted to the F-104G and like many other Starfighter units, the Squadron was assigned to the NATO fighter bomber strike role, trained and ready to be deployed at any time should circumstances require it. The last operational flight of the F-104 took place in March 1983.

On 26 September 1983, the last Starfighter (FX-99) was flown to the storage depot, located at the Koksijde base.

This honour was reserved for the oldest 31 Tiger pilot.

The previous year the first F-16A touched down at Kleine-Brogel.

The conversion of the 31st Squadron started November 1982 and was completed August 1983.

The 31st Sqn is assigned to NATO as an operational F-16 squadron on 1 September 1983 and is reintegrated in NATO in March 1984.

In September 2001, 31st Squadron was be one of the last Belgian squadrons to make the transition to the excellent Mid-life Upgrade F-16 program and so 31st Squadron could also call itself a Multi-Role squadron.

At the same time it continues to fulfill its Strike role.

In 2002 the Squadron gained strength when the merger with their eternal opponents, 23rd Squadron which was disbanded, became a fact.

The direct result was that this newly composed Squadron now had its own fully qualified MLU instructors so that all pilots could quickly retrain to the new MLU F-16s. The former 23 Squadron pilots were the first to follow the retraining on MLU F-16.

The squdron will receive their first F-35A "Lightning II" in 2027.

1951: Activation of the squadron in Beauvechain

1951: 'Spitfire' Mk. XIV

1951: 'Spitfire' Mk. XIV (Chièvres, part of 10 Wing)

1952: Deactivated for 1 year

1953: F-84G 'Thunderjet' (Kleine Brogel)

1953: F-84G 'Thunderjet' (Geilenkirchen [Germ.])

1954: F-84G 'Thunderjet' (Weelde)

1954: F-84G 'Thunderjet' (Kleine Brogel)

1956: F-84F 'Thunderstreak'

1964: F-104G 'Starfighter'

1983: F-16A 'Fighting Falcon'

2002: F-16AM 'Fighting Falcon'

2027 : F-35A 'Lightning II'

Deployments:

'Air Policing Baltic States'

'Allied Force'

'Decisive Endeavour'

'Deliberate Forge'

'Deliberate Guard'

'Determined Falcon'

'Enhanced Air Policing'

'International Security Assistance Force - Eastern Eagle'

'International Security Assistance Force - Guardian Falcon'

'Odyssey Dawn / Unified Protector'

'Operation Inherent Resolve - Desert Falcon'

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