Jagdgeschwader 73

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Jagdgeschwader 73 "Steinhoff" (Fighter Wing 73)
Active	1 April 1959-Present
Country	Federal Republic of Germany
Branch	German Air Force (Luftwaffe)
Role	Air Defence, Training
Part of	2nd Air Force Division (2. Luftwaffendivision)
Garrison/HQ	Laage
Equipment	Eurofighter Typhoon, F-4 Phantom II
Commanders
Current commander	Colonel (Oberst) Andreas Schick

Jagdgeschwader 73 (Fighter Wing 73) "Steinhoff" is a fighter wing of the German Luftwaffe. The wing is based in north-eastern Germany at the town of Laage near Rostock. Its role includes general Air Defence as well as Training on the Eurofighter Typhoon.

[edit] History

On 1 April 1959 Fighter Wing 73 was formed at the former RAF Ahlhorn, and Oldenburg, using F-86 Sabre aircraft.

In 1964 Close Air Support was added to the role of tasks with fighterbomber support for the German Army. Thus a change of aircraft to Fiat G91 was conducted and the Wing was renamed to Jagdbombergeschwader 42 (Fighter Bomber Wing 42). In 1967 Tactical Reconnaissance became another task of the Wing and a new renaming brought about the Leichtes Kampfgeschwader 42 (Light Combat Wing 42). With the introduction of the RF-4E in 1971 to the Luftwaffe, the Wing's role of reconnaissance became redundant and on 1 April 1975 the Wing was named Jagdbombergeschwader 35 (Fighter Bomber Wing 35).

During a solemn ceremony on 27 April 1985 the Wing adopted the tradition of the former night fighter units of the "old" Luftwaffe (pre 1945).^{[citation needed]}

After the reunification of Germany in 1991, the Wing began to take over MiG-29 aircraft from the Luftstreitkräfte der NVA, the former East German air force. In October a test wing with MiG-29's was formed in Preschen and in February 1993 it was decided to merge this test wing with the then Jagdbombergeschwader 35, to be named Jagdgeschwader 73 once more.

In 1994 the first MiG's were stationed at Laage to form an alert flight for Air Policing. The relocation of the F-4 Phantom's was eventually conducted in 1997 which meant the formal decomissioning of air base at Pferdsfeld. In September 1997 the joint operations of MiG-29's and F-4F's was taken up at Laage. On 18 September 1997 the Jagdgeschwader 73 was then officially commissioned by Minister of Defence Volker Rühe. At the same time, Rühe awarded the name "Steinhoff" to the re-formed Wing.

In March 2000 the 2nd Squadron (F4-F) was decommissioned and after a short break it was then re-actived as a training squadron for the Eurofighter. JG 73 received its first six (twin-seat) Eurofighter Typhoons on 30 April 2004.^[1] Only a few months later, in August 2004, the last remaining MiG-29's in the Luftwaffe were sold to Poland.