|
|
Volkel : Tiger Tiger Tiger !
Text : Serge Van Heertum & Pictures : Serge Van Heertum & Eddy Devroey - SBAP
The traditional and well known NATO tigermeet was held between October 4th and October 15th at Volkel Air Base Netherland.
 |
Missions :
The morning missions provided the pilots to get familiar with the
training area, and get some smaller scale training. While in the afternoon the
missions were focused on large COMAO exercises.
Tiger Meets are the Associations reason for being. While in the early days the
Tiger Meet was mainly a social get together from Tiger squadrons things changed
rapidly and tactical flying exercises were soon implemented into the Tiger Meet
program to become a major exercise in the NATO structures.
The typical Tiger Meet missions are range firing, air-to-air, low level
navigation and COMAO missions. All flights begin with a briefing and finish with
a debriefing of the mission to analyse what happened during the mission and
underline the positive or negative aspects. Due to the growing helicopter forces
within the Tiger association they are integrated within the mission as Forward
Air Controllers or in a CSAR role. Besides their work within the COMAO's the
helicopter forces often practices with local army (special) forces.
The last four NATO Tigermeets were even incorporated into larger scale exercises
like AIRNORTH's Clean Hunter 01 and Daring Eagle 02.
During a Tigermeet more than 500 sorties are flown by the Tigers. No need to say
that people involved in mission planning and aircraft maintenance also have a
busy working schedule.
So what's the program of a typical eight day NATO Tiger Meet?
Well it all starts with the arrival of the participants and the opening
ceremony were all flags are raised up to the last day. From then on the
operations start. In the morning most participants fly local missions among each
other, while in the afternoon the COMAO's are flown against 'red forces' which
are in most cases units from the host country acting like 'enemy forces'. No
need to say that all these missions are carefully planned, briefed, executed and
debriefed. This schedule is followed for most of the flying days.
By the end of the operational week it is time for some social activities between
all participating units. It is during these days that the well known Tiger Games
are executed. Tiger Games are mainly a mix of fun and sports.
The Tiger Meet is always closed by lowering the flags.
After the official ceremony the traditional farewell party is started and
various awards are handed out to the different winners. The most important is of
course the Silver Tiger Trophy!
During the two weeks held at Volkel, 644 missions where accomplished on the
total of 715 planned.
Awards :
BEST FLYING: 338
Squadron -
Norvegian Air Force
BEST PAINTED JET: 192 Filo - Turkish
Air Force
BEST TIGER DRESS: 21° Gruppo -
Aeronautica
Militare Italiana
BEST TIGER SKIT:
Tigerstaffel - Austrian Air Force
BEST
TIGER
GAMES: 221 Squadron - Czech
Air Force
SILVER TIGER TROPHY 2010: 211 Squadron - Czech Air Force
Once again this prestigious exercise meeting is over, but next year the 2011 edition that will be held for the last time at Cambrai Air Base before the closure of this French base, will underline the 50 years of the tigermeet created in 1961 also at Cambrai. Let's hope that this special anniversary will bring many tiger jets and their special decoration...Wait and see !
| Royal Netherland Air Force "Koninklijke Luchtmacht 313 Squadron F-16AM & F-16BM | |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
| French Air Force "Armée de l'Air" EC 01/012 Mirage 2000RDI | |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) |
"Leased" from EC 05/330 with a special logo : ADA Location d'avions (Serge Van Heertum) |
| Belgian Air Force "Belgian Air Component" 31 Squadron F-16AM & F-16BM | |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
| German Air Force "Luftwaffe" AG51 Tornado IDS | |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Eddy Devroey) |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Eddy Devroey) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Eddy Devroey) |
| French Air Force "Armée de l'Air" EC 05/330 Mirage 2000D | |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
| Czech Air Force "Vzdušné síly armády České republiky" 211 Squadron JAS39C & JAS39D Gripen | |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Eddy Devroey) |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Eddy Devroey) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Eddy Devroey) |
| Norvegian Air Force "Luftforsvaret" 338 Squadron F-16AM & F-16BM | |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
| Turkish Air Force "Türk Hava Kuvvetleri" 192 Filo F-16C & F-16D | |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Eddy Devroey) |
| Italian Air Force "Aeronautica Militare Italiana" 21 Gruppo Agusta-Bell AB212 ICO | |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Eddy Devroey) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
| Czech Air Force "Vzdušné síly armády České republiky" 221 Squadron Mil-Mi 35 | |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Eddy Devroey) |
| Hungarian Air Force "Magyar Légierö" 59/1 Puma Squadron JAS39C & JAS39D Gripen | |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
| German Air Force "Luftwaffe" JaboG 321 Tornado ECR | |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Eddy Devroey) |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Eddy Devroey) |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
| Austrian Air Force "Östereichische Luftstreitkräfte" Tigerstaffel Saab 105Ö | |
 |
 |
| (Eddy Devroey) | (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
 |
| (Serge Van Heertum) | (Eddy Devroey) |
| Other participant and visitors | |
 |
 |
| Cobham Aviation Falcon 20 (Serge Van Heertum) | Beech 1900D Swiss Air Force (Eddy Devroey) |
 |
 |
| AH-64D Apache KLU 301 Squadron (Eddy Devroey) | Eurocopter EC-135 T-2 Medic Assistance (Serge Van Heertum) |
 |
|
| The enemies of the tiger : birds... (Serge Van Heertum) | |