With the second instalment of exercise Cobra Warrior last month, I was fortunate that I had some time owed from work and that I would this time be able to get some time at the fence to see the participating aircraft.
This meant 3 bases, two days, numerous miles and much coffee.
Firstly was a fairly chilled morning at RAF Mildenhall, although I was there for aircraft taking part in the exercise, one of the first movements was a US Marine Corp Hercules making its way out, a very welcome sight for sure and unexpected.
WithCobra warrior involving aircraft from 5 nations, the logistics and planning for each flight must take an enormous amount of thought, it was apparent that morning flights were not leaving until about 10am and by 930am the engines on the visiting Aviano based f16s from the 555th fs were starting to run up.
The morning flight left and then it was the waiting game with a few sporadic aircraft movements breaking the monotony.
Within a couple of hours the planes entered the circuit and returned, including a resplendent painted tail F-16 with Rolling Thunder written on it.
Day 2 meant a very early 3am start to meet up with Anonymous Aviation and then onwards to RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. Having never been here before it was great to get those first visit vibes and jitters. We parked up at the infamous Wave car park, and set up the ladders and cameras, awaiting the radios to spark into life signalling things were happening.
After a relatively short wait, the Finnish, Canadian and Polish aircraft were airborne, but with it being an overcast day the launch shots came out as silhouette reference shots, nothing to shout about.
The landing and taxi shots were the ones we were waiting for and the spot we chose was superb.
With the aircraft landing and continuing to taxi right past us it was a great chance to get some lovely close up images, especially of the Polish air force “Raven” commemorating the son from WW2.
With the planes on the ground and a few hours until the afternoon flights, the weather looked to be closing in, so a spur of the moment decision was taken, “lets go to Conningsby” 30 minutes later we were parked up and Typhoons were running. A quick scramble with the gear and we were in position to get shots of the RAF typhoons leaving for afternoon flights.
With a work curfew on the horizon we needed to call it a day, and jubilant car journey back to Suffolk commenced, the urge to take a detour past Lakenheath was too much but sadly nothing was on approach or launching so the journey continued.
So my first trip for a cobra warrior exercise complete, I’m already looking forward to seeing what nations participate next year if the exercise goes ahead once again.