Last weekend we spent some time shooting the arrivals for the NATO Tiger Meet exercise that is taking place at the Krzesiny airbase in Poznan.

NTM 18, involving 70 jets, 10 helicopters and the AWACS platform, is underway in Poland until May 25. Twenty two squadrons hailing from 13 countries declared their will to participate in this operation, which is the largest of the Polish Air Force-hosted training initiatives this year.

Full list of squadrons can be found below (via the official NTM18 media channel):

The list has changed now, since the German A-4 Skyhawks have cancelled their deployment to Poznan.

From a Polish perspective, the event is one of the most interesting this year: not only does it involve the Polish Air Force, but also the Polish military as a whole. The training operation in Krzesiny has been coordinated and brought together with the Poznan Air Show event held at the Ławica international airport. 6th Fighter Squadron based in Krzesiny has been a member of the NATO Tiger Association since the year 2011, with its F-16 fighter aircraft.

Expect more NTM18 coverage from The Aviationist during the upcoming days.

Images: Jacek Siminski

Four Hellenic Air Force Vipers made a fuel stop in Italy on their way to Poznan, Poland.

NATO Tiger Meet is an annual exercise that gathers squadrons sporting Tiger (or feline) emblems. The Exercise’s distinctive feature is that the planes that attend it usually get brand new, flamboyant tiger color schemes.

On May 12, 2018, four HAF F-16s belonging to the 335 Squadron from Araxos, wearing Tiger markings, visited Aviano Air Base, in northeastern Italy, on their way to NATO Tiger Meet 2018 in Poland.

In this post you can find the photographs (taken by our contributor Claudio Tramontin) of the four aircraft, three F-16Cs (serialled 003, 007, 017) and one F-16D (023), about to land on runway 05 at Aviano: whilst the single seaters featured a quite simple tiger stripe on the upper side of the tail, the two-seater sported a special tiger livery that covered the CFTs (Conformal Fuel Tanks) as well as the external fuel tanks with the text Akir 1941 – Araxos 2018. In fact, the 335 Sqn is the oldest HAF squadron: it was established at Akir (RAF Aqir, Palestine, currently Tel Nof airbase, Israel), in 1941.

More specials will attend NTM2018 that we will cover in the next couple of weeks.

 

 

Bavarian Tigers did it again.

In anticipation of NATO Tiger Meet 2016 at Saragoza, Spain, the Bavarian Tigers, founded on Mar. 18, 2013, by the 741 and 742 squadrons of the German Air Force’s Jagdgeschwader 74 in Neuburg, have painted one of their Eurofighters with a brand new tiger outfit.

Probably not as cool as the previous, amazing Tiger livery, prepared for the NTM2014, and that entirely covered one of the German Eurofighters, the Cyber Tiger color scheme is still quite impressive and cool.

NATO Tiger Meet (NTM) is an annual multinational exercise that gathers squadrons sporting Tiger (or feline) emblems. Among the highlights of the meeting, is the fact that combat planes and helicopters often sport spectacular color schemes, making the event a treat for all aviation enthusiasts.

Image credit: Bavarian Tigers

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A Turkish Air Force F-16C attending the Nato Tiger Meet in Konya, sports the kill marking “earned” after shooting down a Syrian Mi-17.

On Sept. 16, 2013, a Syrian Arab Air Force Mi-17 Hip helicopter that violated the Turkish airspace by 2 km was shot down by a Turkish Air Force F-16C belonging to the 182 Filo.

Noteworthy, a photograph, taken at Konya airbase during the NATO Tiger Meet 2015 exercise and published by the Turkish Kokpit.aero website, shows the F-16 (serialled 92-005) sporting a Mi-17 kill mark to celebrate the aerial victory over the Assad’s utility chopper.

Image credit: Rob van Leeuwen

 

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NATO Tiger Meet is an annual exercise that gathers squadrons sporting Tiger (or feline) emblems. Planes that attend it, usually get painted in tiger outfits. As happened during 2014 edition in Germany.

NATO Tiger Meet (NTM) is a two-week multi-national mid-size exercise that includes all types of air-to-air and air-to-ground and a wide variety of support missions, comprising CSAR and large COMAOs (Composite Air Operations).

NTM2014 (with spotters days on Jun. 19 and 23) was held at Schleswig – Jagel, in northern Germany.

Along with the first Eurofighter Typhoon in tiger color scheme, several other aircraft attended the drills with brand new, flamboyant tiger color schemes: French Rafales, Polish F-16 Block 52+ jets, Turkish F-16Cs, and Czech JAS-39 Gripen sported cool tiger liveries.

The images in this post, showing some of the most fancy special colored combat planes, were taken by The Aviationist’s photographer Tony Lovelock during NTM2014.

Who wins?

Czech AF JAS-39 Gripen 211 Sqn

 

Czech AF JAS-39 211 Sqn

 

Royal Netherlands AF F-16 313 Sqn

 

Belgian AF F-16 31 Sqn

 

Polish AF F-16 Block 52+ 6 Sqn

 

Czech AF JAS-39 Gripen 211 Sqn

 

French AF Mirage 2000-5F ECE 05.330

 

French AF Rafale EC 1/7

 

German AF Eurofighter Typhoon Fighterwing 74.

 

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