Su-25 Frogfoot jets from Azerbaijan along with Pakistani and Jordan aircraft were the highlights of this year’s Anatolian Eagle.
Organized at the 3rd Main Jet Base Command Konya Air Base, in central Anatolia, south of Ankara, Turkey, Anatolian Eagle is a series of exercises, inspired by the U.S. Red Flag and Maple Flag series, hosted by the Turkish Air Force and attended each year by several foreign air arms. The latter, include NATO allies along with rather exotic services from other countries, that are rarely seen elsewhere in Europe.
This year’s edition, from June 20 to July 1, 2022, saw the participation of aircraft from Azerbaijan, United Kingdom, Jordan, Pakistan, and NATO (the E-3) involved in Composite Air Operations (COMAOs) on tactical and strategic targets defended by Aggressors aircraft and Surface to Air Missile (SAM) threats of all types, CAP (Combat Air Patrols), Fighter Sweep and SEAD/DEAD (Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses), AI (Air Interdiction), CAS (Close Air Support) and CSAR (Combat SAR).
You can read more about the Anatolian Eagle series, in the stories we have published here at The Aviationist, in the past (2021, 2019, 2016, 2015, 2014).
According to Turkish Air Force, 48 aircraft and 1335 personnel took part in the exercise and a total of 274 sorties were flown.
In this article you can find a selection of about 50 shots taken by our contributor Claudio Tramontin during the exercise: they provide a pretty good view of the variety assets (including the interesting Azerbaijani Su-25s and the special colored F-4E-2020 of the 111 Filo that visited Konya during the exercise) that you can find at Konya AB during AE 2022.
