Cobra Warrior 26-2
Draken’s Red Air Takes Centre Stage at Teesside
Teeside\RAF Waddington | September 2026
Exercise Cobra Warrior is one of the Royal Air Force’s premier tactical air exercises, bringing together allied air forces to train in a demanding, multinational combat environment. While much of the attention naturally falls on the frontline fighters operating from bases such as RAF Waddington, RAF Cranwell and RAF Coningsby, an equally important contribution comes from the contractors providing the opposition. During Cobra Warrior 26-2, Draken Aviation’s operation at Teesside International Airport was a particularly interesting part of the wider exercise, and a day spent there offered an opportunity to look at the aircraft behind the Red Air mission.
Running from 14 September to 2 October 2026, Cobra Warrior 26-2 brought together allied air forces for complex tactical training designed to test interoperability and the ability to operate together in a demanding combat environment.
While the frontline fighters naturally attract considerable attention, the aircraft providing realistic opposition are an essential part of the exercise. My visit to Teesside offered an opportunity to focus on this often-overlooked element of Cobra Warrior and the contribution made by Draken Aviation.
Draken Aviation – providing the opposition
Based at Teesside International Airport, Draken Europe plays a valuable role in preparing RAF and allied aircrew for the challenges of high-intensity air combat. Its aircraft operate as the opposing force, commonly referred to as Red Air, presenting friendly forces with a realistic adversary against which to practise their tactics.
Draken’s Teesside fleet includes Dassault Falcon 20 aircraft and Czech-built Aero L-159E Honey Badgers. These platforms offer complementary capabilities, allowing the company to provide different types of opposition and specialist support according to the training requirement.
The Falcon 20 is a versatile platform used for specialist training tasks, including electronic warfare and adversary support. Its role extends beyond that of a conventional fast jet, helping to introduce additional complexity into the training environment.
The L-159E Honey Badger, meanwhile, provides a dedicated fast-jet platform, making it particularly suited to air combat training. Its performance and handling characteristics allow it to participate in scenarios designed to challenge the tactics and decision-making of frontline fighter crews.
Together, these aircraft provide a flexible adversary capability that can be tailored to the requirements of a large multinational exercise. Their contribution is an important part of making the training as realistic and demanding as possible.
One of the interesting aspects of photographing Draken during Cobra Warrior is the contrast between these specialist aircraft and the frontline fighters operating from the other participating bases. Although their roles differ, they are part of the same training environment, with the Red Air element helping to test the effectiveness of the tactics being practised.
For aviation enthusiasts, Teesside also offers the opportunity to see aircraft that are less frequently encountered at the larger RAF exercise bases. The combination of Falcons and L-159Es gives the Draken operation a distinctive identity, making it a worthwhile subject in its own right.
Aero L-159E Honey Badger – from Czech military service to Red Air
One of the most distinctive elements of Draken’s Teesside operation is its fleet of Aero L-159E Honey Badgers. These compact combat jets have an interesting history that began with the Czech Air Force, which originally operated the L-159 as a light combat aircraft before surplus examples found a second career in the civilian adversary training market. Today, these former Czech military aircraft are a familiar sight at Teesside, where they support the RAF’s Red Air training programme.
The L-159 ALCA, short for Advanced Light Combat Aircraft, was developed by Czech manufacturer Aero Vodochody as a modern light combat aircraft for the Czech Air Force. Building on the company’s considerable experience with the L-39 Albatros family and its successor, the L-59 Super Albatros, the L-159 represented a significant step forward in capability, incorporating modern Western avionics, radar and a more powerful engine.
Designed primarily for close air support, tactical reconnaissance and limited air-to-air missions, the L-159 was equipped with a multi-mode radar and systems compatible with NATO standards. Its single-seat configuration was designed around the combat role, while the two-seat variants provided an advanced training capability.
A Second Career with Draken
The L-159’s story did not end when aircraft became surplus to Czech military requirements. Their subsequent acquisition by Draken gave the type a new role in the growing market for privately operated adversary aircraft.
In July 2014, Draken International signed an agreement for 21 L-159 aircraft, with Aero Vodochody providing support associated with returning the aircraft to operational service. The first aircraft were delivered in 2015 for tactical training work in the United States.
The aircraft acquired by Draken were designated L-159E Honey Badgers in their contractor-operated role. Rather than being used as frontline combat aircraft, they would provide a realistic opposing force for military aircrew training, allowing pilots flying more advanced fighters to practise detecting, intercepting and engaging an adversary in a controlled training environment.
This role eventually brought the type to the UK. In 2022, Draken secured the RAF’s Interim Red Air Aggressor Training Service contract, with its Teesside-based operation providing adversary aircraft for training sorties. The first IRAATS sortie took place over the North Sea in December of that year.
The Honey Badger has therefore enjoyed a particularly interesting transition: from a Czech military combat aircraft to a specialist training platform supporting the preparation of modern NATO air forces.
Czech Camouflage with a Distinctive Twist
One of the most interesting features of Draken’s L-159Es at Teesside is their appearance. The aircraft retain camouflage schemes associated with their Czech military heritage, giving them a very different look from the predominantly grey finish commonly seen on modern frontline fighters.
The Fighter Contribution – RAF, German and Italian Typhoons
While Draken provided the opposition, the frontline fighter element formed a central part of Cobra Warrior 26-2’s demanding tactical training. RAF and allied Eurofighter Typhoons operated within a wider multinational environment designed to test the ability of participating air forces to plan, coordinate and execute complex missions together.
The German Air Force deployed 11 Eurofighter Typhoons and approximately 200 personnel from Tactical Air Wing 31 Boelcke, operating from RAF Cranwell. Their contribution brought a substantial fighter capability to the exercise, working alongside the RAF and other allied forces. Although I didn’t manage to photograph the German aircraft at Cranwell, their participation formed an important part of the multinational fighter effort.
RAF Waddington was the main exercise hub and welcomed the Italian Air Force contingent, whose Eurofighter Typhoons added another international dimension to the fighter line-up. The Italian deployment brought aircraft and personnel from the country’s four Eurofighter-equipped wings: 4° Stormo at Grosseto, 36° Stormo at Gioia del Colle, 37° Stormo at Trapani and 51° Stormo at Istrana.
The Eurofighter, known in Italian and German service as the Eurofighter EF2000, provided a common frontline fighter platform for the participating nations. While sharing the same basic aircraft design, each air force brought its own personnel, procedures and operational experience to the exercise, demonstrating the importance of interoperability between allied air forces.
GFD Learjet 35A – D-CGFD
Another interesting participant in Cobra Warrior 26-2 was the GFD (Gesellschaft für Flugzieldarstellung) Gates Learjet 35A, registered D-CGFD. Operated by the German specialist training company GFD, the aircraft is part of a fleet used to provide airborne training support for military forces. Learjets of this type can be equipped for tasks including electronic warfare training and the simulation of airborne threats, helping to make exercises more realistic for the participating aircrews. Its involvement added another specialist contractor capability to the multinational exercise, complementing the work of Draken’s Red Air aircraft from Teesside.
Support Helicopters & Assets
The exercise integrated combat air, intelligence, surveillance, transport/tanker assets, and support helicopters (including assets like Chinooks and Wildcat helicopters) to simulate contested environments and joint warfighting readiness.
A Multinational Exercise
Although the fighters are among the most visible elements of Cobra Warrior, the exercise involved a much broader range of capabilities. Around 1,800 personnel from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United States took part in Cobra Warrior 26-2, which generated 942 sorties and more than 2,500 flying hours across 14 complex missions.
Alongside the frontline fighters, the exercise incorporated surveillance and reconnaissance, air mobility, support helicopters, force protection, cyber capabilities and command-and-control assets. These elements helped create a realistic training environment in which success depended on coordination across multiple disciplines rather than the performance of any single aircraft type.
