{"id":55654,"date":"2024-04-27T22:23:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-27T20:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=55654"},"modified":"2026-04-27T00:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T22:15:14","slug":"a-spanish-pilot-shows-one-of-the-c-295m-of-the-353-special-operations-squadron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/04\/27\/a-spanish-pilot-shows-one-of-the-c-295m-of-the-353-special-operations-squadron\/","title":{"rendered":"A Spanish pilot shows one of the C-295M of the 353 Special Operations Squadron"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For a few years now, the Spanish Air Force has had a fixed wing unit dedicated specifically to special operations missions.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/05\/03\/c-41a-the-spanish-aircrafts-used-by-the-united-states-special-operations-forces\/\">C-41A: the Spanish aircrafts used by the United States special operations forces<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/03\/21\/the-afsoc-524th-sos-the-airline-of-the-united-states-special-operations-military\/\">The AFSOC 524th SOS: the 'airline' of the United States special operations military<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>That unit is <strong>the 353 Special Operations Squadron of the 35th Wing, based in Getafe<\/strong> (Madrid). This unit is equipped with a Spanish-made tactical transport aircraft, the <strong>CASA C-295M<\/strong>, whose Spanish military name is T.21 and which is currently produced by Airbus. The YouTube channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@flybywire-aviation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fly By Wire Aviation<\/a> has published an interesting video this Saturday in which <strong>a pilot from the 353 Squadron shows us his plane inside and out<\/strong>, tells us its characteristics and tells us about the missions that this aircraft can carry out:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Airbus C-295 Ala 35 Reportaje Entrevista\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LIU-BXhqCfQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The plane we see in the video is the T.21-01 35-01<\/strong>, with construction number S-002. It is the fourth of the C-295s built and the first of those received by the Air Force. <strong>Currently, Spain has 12 C-295M tactical transport<\/strong>, although the forecast is to reach up to 18 units. Also, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/06\/20\/spanish-air-force-will-receive-16-c295w-mpa-msa-this-is-how-these-aircraft-are-for-maritime-missions\/\">the Spanish Air Force expects to receive 6 C-295W MPA for maritime patrol and 10 C-295W MSA for maritime surveillance<\/a>, to replace the P-3 Orion already retired from service and the C-235 VIGMA.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53682859113_dd7d13e945_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">The T.21-02 with the decoration alluding to the centenary of the Getafe Air Base in its drift (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ejercitoaire\/53281897659\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ej\u00e9rcito del Aire<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p><strong>The Spanish C-295M are operated by the 35th Wing, a unit formed by two squadrons:<\/strong> the 352 \"Tuc\u00e1n\" and the 353 \"Ibis\" (both equipped with C-295). The third squadron of the 35th Wing, the 351 \"Azor\", once equipped with CASA C-235, is currently deactivated. <strong>The 353 Squadron is specially prepared to support the missions of the EZAPAC<\/strong> (Parachute Sapper Squadron, the special operations unit of the Spanish Air Force) <strong>and the other units of the Joint Operations Command Special Operations (MCOE)<\/strong> of the Spanish Armed Forces: the Special Operations Command (MOE) of the Army and the Special Naval Warfare Force (FGNE) of the Navy.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53682632766_f22e7fde78_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">The T.21-2 at the Ablitas Military Aerodrome, in Navarra, in October 2023 (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ejercitoaire\/53281825463\/in\/album-72157682843354913\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ej\u00e9rcito del Aire<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p><strong>Spain is not the only NATO country that has fixed-wing aircraft dedicated to special operations.<\/strong> In this issue, as in others, the reference country is the United States, whose Air Force has its own command of special operations, <strong>the AFSOC, currently made up of six Special Operations Wings<\/strong> equipped with aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft such as the AC-130J Ghostrider, the MC-130H Combat Talon II and also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/03\/21\/the-afsoc-524th-sos-the-airline-of-the-united-states-special-operations-military\/\">the Dornier C-146A Wolfhound of the 524th SOS that we already saw here<\/a>, as well as CV-22B Osprey converter planes and MQ-9 Reaper drones. <strong>The US Army also has fixed-wing aircraft for this type of operations<\/strong>, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/05\/03\/c-41a-the-spanish-aircrafts-used-by-the-united-states-special-operations-forces\/\">the C-41A, American name for the Spanish CASA C-212<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a few years now, the Spanish Air Force has had a fixed wing unit dedicated specifically to special operations missions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,17021],"tags":[21777,7533,6466,18287,11875],"class_list":["post-55654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-special-forces","tag-353-escuadron-de-operaciones-especiales","tag-ala-35","tag-casa-c295","tag-getafe-air-base","tag-spanish-air-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}