NATO Tiger Meet 2012 Ørland MAS, Norway 1 - 2 June 2012
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The Norwegian Air Force now has three F-16's decked out in different Tiger Meet liveries. Onfortunately, the new one was hangar bound during the two days concerned. The Belgian 31 sq´s FA-87 underwent a slight adaptation to its paint scheme over the winter.
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A Dutch F-16 in tiger marks in take off with to the right to of the Turkish particpants. Note the surfboard-turned-snowboard on the F-16C.
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The Swiss Air Force displayed the F/A-18 Hornet in flight during the Saturday. Of course, their Tiger plane was good old J-5011 from Fliegerstaffel 11 at Meiringen. No special Tiger marks were visible on any of the Czech Gripens flying on the Friday nor the Saturday. However, some Tiger spirit was visible on the fuel tank of one of their JAS-39C Gripens. This year, no participation by SPA 162 as this flight had only recently been absorbed by EC 1/7. CEAM 5/330 from Mont de Marsan however did send some Rafales, including this suitably marked example.
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Not to be outdone, the German Luftwaffe designed this literally cool blue and white "Ice Tiger" colour scheme for their AG 51 Tornado. JBG 32's Tiger jet could be seen at Cambrai in 2011 already however. Support, in the form of air to air refuelling had to be arranged for certain scenarios as well. For this, the Ohio Air National Guard was requested to send a pair of KC-135R tankers to Norway. |
Support in a different form, that of electronic warfare simulation, was entrusted to the German firm of GFD (Gesellschaft für Flugzieldarstellung, Aerial Target Provision Company) from Hohn near Rendsburg. One of the company's Learjet 35A's can be seen in take-off left. During the Spotter's Day, a pair of military VIP jets from the German (Bombardier 5000, center) and the Swiss Air Forces (Cessna 560XL Citation Excel) appeared.
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No large scale operation would be thinkable without AWACS support. NATO's E-3A did just that during NTM 2012. Active during NTM 2012, in case of aircrew having to ditch, were Skv 330's Sea King rescue helicopters. Note the two winches mounted for redundancy on this helicopter. The air show on the Saturday amongst other featured a set-piece in which most assets of the Royal Norwegian Air Force featured. Among them were the Dassault Falcon 20ECM seen at right. |
Further Norwegian participation included this P-3C Orion. Very welcome sights were the RNoAF's demo F-16AM in its red-white-blue and silver paint scheme which when viewed from above resembled a Norwegian roundel. Another visitor was at the time of writing only NH.90NFH naval helicopter, the intended successor to the Westland Lynx. During the Tiger Meet, it became known that Skv 338 will be organising NTM 2013 as well. Originally, the meet was to be held at Araxos in Greece, but the reasons for the Greek dropping out on this one have already been touched upon above. |
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All pictures (c) Hans Rolink