NATO Tiger Meet exercise is a perfect opportunity for the air force units which use tiger as their emblem to meet and train together. Numerous NATO units use tigers as their emblem, thus the exercise is attended by a variety of aircraft, including fighters, attack, assault, reconnaissance and other aircraft. This makes it possible to conduct a scenario which requires use of a wide variety of the aircraft types.
This year, the NATO Tigers met at the 3rd Air Base in Konya, where they had two 3350 m runways at their disposal. Mountains surrounding the base, with numerous canyons, constituted a background for the exercise, the scenario of which was based on the current or potential armed conflicts. The Polish Air Force participated in the exercise for the 4th time – it was represented by the 6th Fighter Squadron from the Poznań-Krzesiny 31st AB.
According to the pilots involved in the exercise, this year’s edition was very demanding – both due to the scenario, as well as due to the high level of skills possessed by the ‘enemy forces’. Additionally, the exercise also featured new generation anti aircraft weaponry. It was stressed that mission planning was complex and time-consuming, due to the rapidly changing tactical situation.
The Polish pilots commanded the largest number of the COMAO (Composite Air Operations) groups this year, they also took the 2nd place when it comes to the number of flown sorties (air-to-air, close air support, air-to-ground and SAR support).