Emblem

Playing-cards and Arrow
Call Sign: ARROW

Location

111 Combat Wing – Nea Aghialos Air Base

Established

1954

Aircraft served

• F-86E(M) CL-13 Sabre Mk2
• F-5 A/B Freedom Fighter

Aircraft serving

• F-16 C/D Block 50

Mission

The mission of the 341 Squadron (SQN) is to maintain a high level of readiness and effectiveness, in order to conduct successful air operations whenever needed in accordance with current plans. It is achieved by the appropriate organization, training of personnel and maintenance of the available means and systems.

History

The 341 Squadron can trace its history back to 1954 when it was formed at 112 Combat Wing (CW) equipped with the F-86E aircraft. After a number of detachments to 111CW (N. Anchialos Air Base) and 114CW (Tanagra Air Base), finally in 1960 it was moved back to 111CW.

In 1965 the Squadron’s fleet type was replaced by the extremely agile F-5 A/B, whilst maintained its Day Interception (DI) role. During the ’70s and ’80s, 341 Squadron set the pace in defending the national airspace. It would not be far from the truth that its scorecard of this period comprised with any possible deterrence reaction.

The 341 Squadron was reformed in 1998 with F-16 Block 50 employing the Suppression of Enemy Air Defense role (SEAD). Although high standards were required for the SEAD role, it became soon a second nature. Moreover, 341 Squadron could not bypass its heredity in Air Defense (AD), so from the very beginning of its reformation it has demonstrated equal perfection in both AD and SEAD roles.

It is worth mentioning that between 1957 and 1965, the second and third Aerobatic Teams the “AcroTeam” and “Hellenic Flame” respectively, were formed, trained and operated inside the Unit.

The 341 Squadron was the first ever Hellenic Armed Forces’ unit evaluated as an Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) initially and a NATO Reaction Force (NRF) later, with a deployment capability within limited time.

The Squadron’s emblem -emblazoned on a Roman shield- consists of the “Entity of the Aces” in a red and black background. It comprises with a wisely balanced trade-off between “audaces fortuna iuvat” (fortune stands with the daring ones) and “fortes fortuna iuvat” (fortune favours the omnipotent). It is clearly discernible for its parallelism to decisiveness, power, adroitness and tailored perfection. The “Four Aces” are pierced decisively, from end-to-end, through their centre and to an extremely detailed exit point. It implies that the ordnance, represented by the unalterably over the years call sign “Velos” (Arrow), must fulfill the mission’s objective decisively, in full power, skillfully and in noteworthy precision against enemy’s centre of gravity.

Although the official emblem still refers to 341 Day Interception Squadron, the commonly used one simply refers to 341 Squadron. The call sign of 341 Squadron unalterably remains “Velos” (Arrow).