Spanish Air Force EF2000s have just taken part in Red Flag 20-2 at Nellis Air Force Base.
On Mar. 21, 2020, the first wave of four Spanish Air Force EF2000 “Tifóns”, out of the 8 pooled from ALA11 and 14 that took part in RF 20-2 at Nellis AFB, Nevada, made a stop in Dover AFB, Delaware, on their return trip to Spain. The aircraft, including the Eurofighter (C.16-73 /14-31) with the distinctive special “Tiger tail” prepared for the NATO Tiger Meet 2018, were supported by one RAF A330 Voyager tanker (ZZ335) flying as RRR9301.
The airframes belonging to the first cell returning to Spain were:
C.16-45 (14-10)
C.16-64 (14-22)
C.16-73 (14-31) Tiger Scheme
CE.16-12 (14-71)
RRR9301 (ZZ335)
Photographer Brian Maniglia took the shots of the EF2000s and supporting tanker landing at Dover AFB.
On their way to the U.S., ten Spanish Eurofighters (8 + 2 spares) had made a stopover at Lajes Field, Azores, on Feb. 29, 2020, before continuing to Dover on Mar. 1 supported by a P3M P.3M-08/22-31 and a CN235 T.19B-12/D.4-01 along with a KC-130H TK.10-11/31-53 (that carried the support team).
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During Red Flag, the Spanish jets were mainly tasked with swing role missions, carrying a ventral Litening targeting pod, two drop tanks, an AIS (Airborne Instrumentation Sub-system) pod for the flight data downlink to the ground ACMI sensors, and a dummy IRIS-T air-to-air missile.
