Unique formation: F-15, F-22, Su-30, Mig-29N, BAE Hawk and F/A-18 flying together

June 20, 2014 Military Aviation
David Cenciotti

Here’s something you don’t see too often!

As already explained, Cope Taufan 14 is a biennial Large Employment Exercise taking place from Jun. 9 to 20 in Malaysia, to improve U.S. and Malaysian cooperation.

During the exercise, which also featured DACT (Dissimilar Air Combat Training) between U.S. F-15s from 104th Fighter Wing, from Barnes ANGB (Air National Guard Base), Massachusetts, and F-22 Raptor stealth fighters from the 154th Wing, Joint Base Peal Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, participating units arranged a quite unique mixed formation of U.S. Air Force and Royal Malaysian Air Force aircraft.

On Jun. 18, RMAF MIG-29N Fulcrum, Su-30, a BAE Hawk, and an F/A-18 Hornet formated off the coast of Penang, Malaysia, with the U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle and F-22 Raptor, for a photo-session.

Such large, dissimilar formations are usually arranged to celebrate the end of large multi-national exercises with at least one aircraft belonging to each of the participating units.

Cope Taufan

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

 

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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2 Comments

  1. What I find quite interesting is that all the Malaysian aircraft there seem to be twin-sticks.
    Good picture taking opportunities for the rear-seaters.

  2. Raptors flying with Sukhoi’s and Mig’s. Im sure that was not in the original script! Now if we could only do that in other parts of the world ;-)

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