Exercise YorkNite 2025 Swiss Air Force Night-Flying Operations at RAF Leeming   Introduction Every November, as the days shorten and the Yorkshire air turns sharper and colder, RAF Leeming transforms into something altogether different. The familiar rhythm of Hawk T2 circuits gives way to the [...]

Tactical Leadership Programme — Inside Europe’s Premier Advanced Air-Combat School The Tactical Leadership Programme is an international military organisation founded to train the next generation of mission leaders for NATO and allied air forces. Its goal isn’t just to teach pilots how to fly, but [...]

Monday 7th April 2025 marked another unforgettable chapter in the European military aviation calendar as the Hellenic Air Force (HAF) hosted the highly anticipated Iniochos 2025 Spotters Day at Andravida Air Base, home of the 117 Combat Wing. Drawing more than 1,500 aviation enthusiasts and photographers from 32 countries, the event once again cemented its reputation as one of the best-organised and most welcoming spotters’ days in Europe.

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 [...]

11th November 2024 heralded the start of the annual Swiss Air Force Yorknite exercise at RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire with the arrival of 10 F-18C/D aircraft from Payerne, Switzerland. Exercise Yorknite, now in its 5th year at RAF Leeming provides the Swiss Air Force [...]

The Hellenic Air Force hosted the first annual NATO Ramstein Flag 24 exercise over two weeks in October, with visiting air forces based at Andravida Air Base in Western Greece. I attended the second of two Spotters Days held on October 1st and 8th. Despite [...]

Cobra Warrior 24-2 is a large multinational exercise organised by the RAF usually twice a year in March and September but was cancelled in sprint with no formal reason given. Multiple RAF bases across the UK are involved but the Air and Space Warfare centre [...]

YorkNite 2023 Detachment 2 started on the 4th December with the crew changeover happening on the Saturday beforehand. An Helvetic Airlines flight landed into Teeside Airport as Leeming was suffering with thick fog on the Friday afternoon. This also caused the only flight on Friday, [...]