Following on from my first visit to Exercise Frisian Flag back in 2016, in 2017 I decided to give it another go due to the excellent photo opportunities and variety of military aircraft that this exercise brings about. For two weeks, twice daily around 40 military aircraft took off to take part in the exercise, training the pilots and ground crews for realistic war scenarios. For this exercise, a very large training area was established north of the Netherlands in both Dutch, German and Danish airspace. In fact during a visit to Wittmund air base in Germany during that same week, we were able to see fighters flying overhead that were participating in exercise Frisian Flag.
This year was no different than previous years, with plenty of military aircraft participating. The regulars were present, in the form of the home team consisting of RNLAF F-16s from Leeuwarden and Volkel AB, the Belgian Air Component F-16s, and German Eurofighter Typhoons. In addition, like in 2016, the Royal Air Force attended with six tornado GR4s and the French Air Force attended with 5 Mirage 2000s. The stars for me were the USAF that returned with aircraft from two F-15 Air National Guard units and the Portugese Air Force, that participated with 5 F-16s. The USAF F-15s came from 125 FW based at Jacksonville ANGB, Florida, and 159 FW based at NASJRB New Orleans, Louisiana.
For two whole days I photographed the action outside Leeuwarden airbase in glorious weather, alternating between takeoff and landing positions for a variety of picture opportunities. Being there for two days, I also had the opportunity to take pictures of nearly all aircraft that came to participate in the exercise, since most of the squadrons alternate the jets they use between one day and another. A summary of the event can be found in the images below.
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