Moselle Control
Above an old French fortress, battered by scars of two world wars, proudly flies a Tricolour, a Red Ensign and a Stars and Stripes. The three flags symbolize the new role of the fort namely, that of NATO's trinational flying control centre.
Moselle Control, as the unit is officially known, is operated by French, Canadian and American personnel and co-ordinates and handles much of the military and civil flying in the area of the RCAF's NATO Air Division. In addition to carrying out an importnat job, Moselle Control serves as an outstanding example of how NATO can solve its problems at the working level.
The unit is housed in Fort Jeanne d'Arc, nine miles west of Metz, a massive concrete fortress complex built by the Germans in 1902, during the occupation of the area. During the first World War the fort was manned by German troops and in the Second World War an ammunition manufacturing plant was set up in it. Scars from shellfire of both wars are plainly visible and a mass of tangled barbed wire and sharpened metal stakes surrounds the fort, pierced only by a couple of narrow roads. Signs announcing the presence of unexploded mines discourage anyone from wandering off authorized limits.
The tri-national unit dates from 1955, when it was brought into being to co-ordinate military flying from the American, French and Canadian NATO fighter bases in a segment of north-eastern France and to prevent traffic confliction with civil air traffic operating through the area.
The unit's area of control is roughly rectangular, about 100 miles long and 60 miles wide and its air space is filled with a great deal of military flying, in addition to the civil traffic through the region. Sorting this out is a complex task.
Purely local flying from the American, French and Canadian NATO fighter bases in the area is handled by control points at the bases themselves, and appropriate operational radar control points handle intercepts. It's Moselle Control's job, however, to look after instrument flight traffic through and over the area, and to make sure that military and civil flying is sorted out to avoid danger of collision.
Moselle Control is staffed by approximately 160 French Air Force, French Civil Air Ministry, RCAF and USAF personnel. Heading the unit is a veteran French Air Force Officer, Colonel Charles de la Salle. The senior RCAF representative serves as director of operations.
When Moselle Control came into being it didn't inherit any smoothly operating set of working procedures. These it had to work out itself, and they had to conform to French civil flying regulations, and meet the military flying reuirements of the three NATO forces operating fighter wings in the area. The tri-national personnel at Moselle Control are proud of the way in which, as a group, they've worked out all the problems of procedure.
Nerve centre of the unit is the operations room located under one of the main bunkers of the fort. Here is located an array of radar scopes and charts showing airways through the region and the complicated pattern of ascents and let-downs used by each of the French, American and Canadian bases coming under Moselle Control's jurisdiction. To the uninitiated it's a confusing spot, with the many operators speaking in two languages to numerous bases, military radar control points and aircraft.
One of the obvious difficulties of operating Moselle Control with its French, Canadian and American staff is the language problem. Not all members of Moselle Control are bolingual; but all senior personnel speak English and French and the rest have enough of each others language to make it work. "The important thing is everyone seems to want to make it work", said Colonel de la Salle. "With this sort of spirit you can usually beat the toughest problems, and I'm proud to say that our little unit has been working out very satisfactorily"
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Updated: February 28, 2004
