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Organisation of German units using the Bo-105 PAH1A1


xvii-Dietrich

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I have been doing some background reading on the Bo-105. But one thing I've not found anything on is the organisation of Bo-105 squadrons. Is there are list anywhere of which units used them? How many did these units have? And how did they fit into the structure of the Heer (as far as I can tell, they are Heer only, and not Luftwaffe).

 

Any references, links or book recommendations (auf Deutsch ist auch in Ordnung) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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The organisation depends on the time frame we're talking about, because during the Cold War it was different than after the Cold War.

 

Cold War

The Bo-105 PAH1 (PAH1 meaning "Panzerabwehrhubschrauber 1", eng: Anti tank Helicopter 1) was the first attack helicopter of the German Armed Forces and was introduced in 1979. At pretty much the same time the Army Structure IV ("Heeresstruktur IV") was put into effect (see ORBAT picture with Army Aviation colored grey). In this organizational structure the German Army ("Heer") consisted of 3 national corps (plus a binational corps with Denmark, which I will neglect here).

Each of the three army corps (1. Korps, 2. Korps, 3. Korps) did have a brigade sized army aviation ("Heeresflieger") component called the Army Aviation Command (Heeresfliegerkommando 1, Heeresfliegerkommando 2, Heeresfliegerkommando 3). Each Army Aviation Command consisted of three Army Aviation Regiments ("Heeresfliegerregiment"), of which two were equipped with utility/transport helicopters and one was equipped with Bo-105 PAH1 attack helicopters. So in total that results in three Bo-105 PAH1 attack helicopter regiments, one for each corps.

 

7307px-HStruk-IV_Feldheer_OrBat.svg.png

 

Post Cold War

After the end of the Cold War the German Army shrunk a lot over the years and in 2011 ("HEER2011") only three Army Aviation Regiments survived with one of them being Attack Helicopter Regiment 36 ("Angriffshubschrauberregiment 36") equipped with Bo-105 PAH1A1 (see ORBAT with Army Aviation colored grey). Also in 2011 the first Eurcopter Tiger (originally designated PAH2 in german service) was put into service and entirely replaced the Bo-105 PAH1A1 in the following years.

Attack Helicopter Regiment 36 was part of the Special Operations Division (Division Spezielle Operationen), which was the airmobile component of the German Army at that time. This Division pretty much remains the same today, although the division had been reestablished as the Rapid Forces Division (Division Schnelle Kräfte) inbetween and uses the Tiger instead of the Bo-105 PAH1A1, which fired its last missile in 2013.

 

1543px-Heeresstruktur_NeuausrichtungBW.svg.png


Edited by QuiGon
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The regiments that flew the Bo-105 PAH1 and upgraded PAH1A1 are the following:

Heeresfliegerregiment 16 (1979 - 2002)

Kampfhubschrauberregiment 26 (1979 - 2014)

Kampfhubschrauberregiment 36 (1979 - still active)

 

The regiments were renamed from Heeresfliegerregiment (Army Aviation Regiment) to Kampfhubschrauberregiment (Attack Helicopter Regiment) in 2003.

 

#FlyArmy


Edited by QuiGon
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Glad I could help :)

 

Btw, the recon helicopter squadrons/companies that you can see at the divisional level (one for each division) of Army Structure IV are liaison squadrons that operated Alouette II helicopter for most of the cold war, but they got replaced by the the unarmed Bo-105 VBS (Verbindungshubschrauber / Liaison Helicopter) towards the end of the Cold War. I don't really know much about them though. They don't exist anymore today.


Edited by QuiGon
Changed Alouette III to II (thanks to Pilot Ike for the correction!)

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Just a tiny correction:

 

 

Btw, the recon helicopter squadrons/companies that you can see at the divisional level (one for each division) of Army Structure IV are liaison squadrons that operated Alouette II helicopter for most of the cold war

 

Plus, AFAIK the "Heeresfliegerregiment 6" also operated some PAHs, thus being quite unique in its composition of Hueys as light transport helicopters and Bo-105 PAH as tank hunters.


Edited by Pilot Ike
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Pilot Ike said:
Just a tiny correction:

Thanks, I corrected it now (I'm not really familiar with the Alouette helos) 🙂

 

Pilot Ike said:
Plus, AFAIK the "Heeresfliegerregiment 6" also operated some PAHs, thus being quite unique in its composition of Hueys as light transport helicopters and Bo-105 PAH as tank hunters.

Indeed, the "Heeresfliegerregiment 6" (Army Aviation regiment 6) was a bit special, because it was not part of one of the three corps. Instead it was part of a division, the 6th Mechanized Division ("6. Panzergrenadierdivision"), which in turn was assigned to LANDJUT, which was the danish-german corps tasked with defending the baltic approach. Because of that The Heeresfliegerregiment 6 was a mixed regiment, consisting of both, transport and anti tank helicopters, the latter being BO-105 PAH1.


Edited by QuiGon

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