Image courtesy of Les York
Part 1 of Cobra Warrior 2023,was held at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
Bearing in mind how changeable the British weather can be in March,there was only one day lost to adverse weather conditions.
Images courtesy of Gary Parsons
For the first part of the exercise for 2023, Waddington hosted the Indian Air Force with the Mirage 2000, The F-18 Hornets from Finland and the F-16 from the Belgian Air Force.
Other Air Forces also took part, including assets from Waddington, Coningsby and Brize Norton to name a few. Also there were visits by various transport aircraft including:
Indian Air Force C-17 CB-8008
Image courtesy of Les York
Belgian A-400 CT-01
Image courtesy of Alistair Marr
The Indian Air Force
Image courtesy of Mike Gauckwin
The Indian Air Force brought with them several of their Mirage 2000 aircraft, which had transited through King Khalid Air Base in Saudi Arabia and Andravida Air Base in Greece, being refueled by their Ilyushin tanker.
The Finnish Air Force
Image courtesy of Les York
Images courtesy of Mike Gauckwin
The Finnish Air Force brought with them F-18 Hornets, from the 31st Fighter Squadron, and it is believed that this was the first time the F-18s had visited the UK.
The Belgian Air Force
Image courtesy of Mike Gauckwin
Image courtesy of Mike Hiley
The Belgian Air Force brought six F-16 Fighting Falcons from their home base at Kleine Brogel, including one with a special paint scheme.
We would like to thank RAF Waddingtons Media team, and all the participants for their cooperation and for making the exercise such a success.