Exercise Cobra Warrior 2023

Indian Air Force Mirage 2000TI fighter aircraft taxi at RAF Waddington, UK.

From March 2, until March 24, 2023, the exercise Cobra Warrior took place in the United kingdom. Participants from all over the world came to England to RAF Waddington and RAF Coningsby to exercise large scale air combat. European assets consisted next to the British Typhoons of a delegation of six Belgian F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft and six Finnish Air Force F/A-18 Hornet fighters. The Belgians only took part in the first two weeks of the exercise before they went home. The Finnish participation is special as this country was at that time on the border of joining NATO. Finland became a member of NATO on April 4, 2023. This was in the history of this country a very special moment as the country was always neutral. The Belgians and the Finnish operated from RAF Waddington during the Cobra Warrior exercise. The exercise was built up in blocks of two days. The first day is everytime a planning day and the second day is the execution day of the scenario. Many participants also trained locally during these planning days with their planes.

One of the most extraordinary participants in Exercise Cobra Warrior 2023-1 was the participation of the Air Force of India (IAF). The IAF had traveled to the British RAF Waddington for Cobra Warrior with a total of more than 145 service men from the air force. The delegation had gathered at Air Force Station Jamnagar from all corners of India. The main objective for the Indians is to learn to work together and fly against multiple types of fighter aircraft from Europe. Practicing combat scenarios with and against types such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, F/A-18 Hornet and the Eurofighter Typhoon is very special for the Indian alliance and also very instructive. The participating delegation from India consisted of five Mirage 2000I & 2000TI fighters (two Mirage 2000Is and three Mirage 2000TIs respectively). The Indian Air Force has only one wing that operates with the Dassault Mirage 2000. This unit is the 40th Wing based at Gwalior/Maharajpur Air Force Station which is part of the Central Air Command of India.

The Royal Saudi Air Force was one of the foreign participants in the Cobra Warrior exercise. The Saudi Arabian Air Force participated with a total of six EF2000 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. The aircraft all came from Taif/King Fahd Air Base where the aircraft are part of the RSAF 2nd Wing. This unit has three squadrons flying the Typhoon on active duty at this airbase. These squadrons are; 3 Squadron, 10 Squadron and 80 Squadron. During the Cobra Warrior exercise, all three of these units were present at RAF Coningsby to train with the British. It is quite special to see these aircraft in Western Europe, because these aircraft do not come this way very often. RAF Coningsby is also one of the home fields for the British Typhoon as well.