Helicopter creates rain of flares at dusk to fight winter depression in Denmark

The Royal Danish Air Force operates a fleet of 14 EH-101 Merlin (military version of the AgustaWestland AW.101) helicopters, for Search And Rescue and transport tasks.

Even if it may have just been a joke, according to the Flyvevåbnet Facebook page, few days ago, one of them made an impressive display for a very unique reason: after receiving several inquiries by Danish people concerned by the fact that December darkness could negatively affect everyday life the RDAF decided to try to fight this scourge, bringing a little extra light by means of a Merlin releasing flares.

Flares are countermeasures carried by combat planes and helicopters in special dispencers which are released to mislead IR (infra-red) guided surface-to-air or air-to-air missile’s seekers.

Rain of flares 2

Image credit: RDAF

 

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About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.