Cobra Warrior 25-1, the bi-annual RAF organised military exercise involved up to 90 aircraft from multiple countries with RAF Waddington serving as the main base. Guest nations this year included the French Rafales B’s from Escadron de Chasse 1/4 Gascogne from BA 113 Saint-Dizier, Turkish F-16C/D from 152 Filo (akincilar meaning Raiders) from Incirlik AB and RSAF F-15SA from 6sqn based at King Khalid AB, Khamis Mushait, “Asir Province in Saudi Arabia, within the RSAF 5 wing. This was the first visit to Cobra Warrior for these, state of the art upgraded jets.
Running slightly earlier this year due to Ramstein Flag, the exercise took place between 24 February and 14 March which also meant that the first week clashed with the local school holidays. I joined the huge crowd at the fence at the 20 end (opposite the Waddington Aircraft Viewing Area or WAVE) on the first day of the exercise. Week 1 featured exercise flying between 10am and 1pm on Tuesday and Thursday only with other missions flown in the afternoon and non exercise days. For the remaining two weeks exercise flying was planned for each day. Whilst we waited for the first launch we were treated to the departure of the resident Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint ZZ665 on a non related mission as well as a flight from the Protector Unmanned Drone.
First out for the mission were a four ship Royal Saudi Air Force F-15SA’s callsign HERO31-34 flight followed by a pair of French Air Force Rafale B’s and finally a pair of Turkish Air Force F-16C/D’s with the backseater on the D model showing their appreciation to the crowd of spotters and photographers with a heart gesture.
Although much has been written online about the large crowds especially during the first week, the crews seems to really appreciate the attention they were getting with waves, salutes and tiger gestures on almost every taxi past and even a Saudi backseater spotted taking a photo of the crowd at the A15 end as they flew over after takeoff from 02. The crews also made numerous visits to the WAVE to sell (and in the case of the Saudis on the final day- give away) merchandise.
90 minutes later the first wave arrived back with a mixture of straight in approaches and some run and breaks with the French putting on a bit of a show with a series of missed approaches. The afternoon non exercise sorties saw two French, two Turkish and two Saudi aircraft depart.
Thursday was Exercise day 2 and the wind had changed making 02 the active runway. Due to new parking restrictions closing both laybys it was a bit of a hike down to 02 via a very muddy High Dyke and past the crash gate but well worth it as it gives you excellent shooting opportunities all day without the noise and hassle of the A15.
Whilst the Turkish prepared their jets to our right it was the turn of the French Ralale’s to come out first with the Saudi’s departure delayed due to distinguish guest arriving in the form of Marine National Falcon 10, French Air Force TBM and strangly an Italian Spartan.
First back were the Turkish with a missed approach from the D model followed by the Saudi’s who all landed very low over the outer fence. Finally the French returned with another couple of go arounds to entertain the crowd.
After the usual break for lunch the French launched a single Rafale B as Rooster 21 with Rooster 22 cancelling due to an issue. With another pair of F-16’s from the Turkish and 3 Saudi F-15’s they headed for the Scottish highlands via Leeming. After fixing their issues and filing a new flight plan Rooster 22 joined the group late.
Returning just after the sun had dipped below the horizon we missed out on some spectacular shots but managed to catch the F-15’s before the light fully went.
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