March 31, 2023 1.00 pm This story is over 27 months old

International air forces leave RAF Waddington as Exercise Cobra Warrior wraps up

70 aircraft from different nations have taken part

The Finnish Air Force's LJ35 arriving in Lincolnshire for the exercise | Photo: UK MOD Crown Copyright

International air forces are retuning home after completing an intensive training operation at RAF Waddington.

Airforces from NATO, Saudi Arabia, India, Finland and Belgium had been based at the Lincolnshire airbase for three weeks for Exercise Cobra Warrior.

70 aircraft took part in the state-of-the-art exercise to share the latest tactics, with flight trackers around Waddington showing many of them have now departed.

Planespotters have been treated to rarely-seen aircraft gracing Lincolnshire’s skies, often training together for the first time.

Some have posted stunning footage of their exercises.

The Royal Air Force tweeted to say: “Exercise Cobra Warrior has now ended till the next one. The exercise is all about practicing the delivery of air power in a coalition.”

See some of the impressive aircraft which graced Lincolnshire with their presence below.

https://twitter.com/NATO_AIRCOM/status/1640277298292092929

https://twitter.com/NATO_AIRCOM/status/1641348054417653769

https://twitter.com/UKinIndia/status/1640960579622916097

The Lincolnite was invited to witness the exercise up close, although snowy weather conditions meant the aircraft were doing very little flying that day.

The Indian Air Force were flying five Mirage 2000 jets at Waddington, while Saudi Arabia was flying six Typhoons from RAF Coningsby.

Smaller but quicker F-16 jets were been brought over from Belgium and F-18 hornets from Finland, supported by RAF Voyagers conducting tanking operations from RAF Brize Norton.

Chris Whitechurch, the Officer Commanding at RAF Waddington, said Cobra Warrior was a “great opportunity to showcase what the Air Force can do.”

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