Nato Tiger Meet 2009, Kleine Brogel Spotterday 18.09.09.
On 2009 the Belgian Air Force hosted the annual Nato Tiger Meet Exercise at the Kleine Brogel Airbase. During this two week long exercise all the Tigers Squadron belonging to the Nato Alliance joint together to renew their cat bonds. There was over 30 different aircrafts taking part at the exercise running over the Belgian and French Airspace, but also something more that came in for the Week-End Sanicole Airshow.
The Nato Tiger Meet Association history run since the 1960 when the 79th TFS and the No 74 RAF Squadron got together. The following year also the French EC1.12 join the meeting and so the Tiger Assocication was born. There was still a lot of work to do. In fact in the 62 Lt Dugan from the 79th TFS stationed at RAF Woodbridge volunteered to collect the tiger units sending mails to them. Despite some burocracy issues, since these kind of meeting was not meant to start from a squadron initiative the Tiger Meet got a green light. Lt. Mike Dugan in the following years got promoted becaming a four star general and USAF Chief Of Staff. The tiger meet quickly became more popular, actually already on the 62 at Farnborought there was 8 different NATO squadron, on that year there was also the SHAPE Air Deputy. His presence shown that even then the Tiger Meet importance for the relationships and solidarity among the NATO. Every squadron taking part at the Tiger meet must have a Tiger in their crest even if there are few exception that includes some other cats. The Tiger Meet is one of the most complex exercise in Europe comparable to the USAF Red Flag. The exercise pose a lot of emphasis on low flying, air to air refuelling, air combat and C-SAR operations.
At 2009 edition of the Nato Tiger meet exercise there were over 30 different aircraft from at least 8 differents countries. The French team consisted of Mirage 2000 from both EC 01.012 (Cambrai) and ECEA 05.330 (Mont De Marsan), also from the southern base there were some Rafales, for both type there were really nice special colors. Also the Spanish team was huge, there were Mirage F1 from 142 Escuadrón (Albacete) and also EF-18M from ALA15 (Zaragoza), sadly without much of color. There were also Swiss F-18 from Fliegerstaffel 11 (Meiringen), German Tornados from both AG51 (Schleswig-Jagel) and JBG32 (Lechfeld), Gripen from both Czech Republic, actually from 211th Squadron of Caslav and Hungary from 59/1 Squadron of Kecskemet. Besides these fixed wing components at Kleine Brogel there were Belgian (18sq MRH from Beauvenchain), Czech (221st Squadron from Namest) and Italian (from 21st Group of Grazzanise) helos, like AB212ICO and Mil Mi 35. Finally there were plenty of MLU F-16, obviously from the local wing, the 10th Wing 31 Smaldeel, but also from the Orland's 338 Skvadron (Norway) and Volkel's 313 squadron (Netherlands). These units take part to the two weeks exercise flying over the North Sea and Belgium and France air space. Non operating from Kleine Brogle, but taking part to the Exercise there ware also the NATO 1st Squadron with his E-3B .
We entered at Kleine Brogel shortly after 8 oclock after a long night car drive from Italy. Once there we had an amazing access to both runway and the taxiway. We also had a close access to the touching point of the 05 runway from where we could get just perfect pictures of the tire's smoke. On that friday they flew 2 different mission, one in the morning and the other in the early afternoon, on each wave as said before there were around 30 aircraft, so a huge amount of afterburners. In between there were also some rehearsal for the Sanicole Airshow like the Netherland Demo, but also a great Tiger Formation passes and also some Week-End visitors like the Portoguese F-16. Already on base taking part to the week-end airshow there were the Red Bull Team with the B-25 Mitchell or the F4-U Corsair, but also the Patruille de Suisse with the F-5. Between the local F-16 there were also some from the 349th Sqd, which is not tightly a tiger squadron, but nevertheless they joint the party and flew some mission within the cats. So it was a very enjoyable sunshine day full of action and for that we have to thanks all the personnel from the Belgian Air Force for letting around two thousand spotters on the base.
Aircraft Type | Serial | Code | Group | Wing | Base | Note |
F-16AM | FA-70 | 80-3561 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | ||
F-16AM | FA-77 | 80-3568 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | ||
F-16AM | FA-86 | 80-3577 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | ||
F-16AM | FA-87 | 80-3578 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | Blackbird Tiger Special Color | |
F-16AM | FA-106 | 87-0050 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | ||
F-16AM | FA-107 | 87-0051 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | ||
F-16AM | FA-110 | 89-0001 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | ||
F-16AM | FA-124 | 89-0002 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | ||
F-16AM | FA-127 | 89-0005 | 2nd Wing | Florennes, Belgium | 'FS' tail code. | |
F-16AM | FA-128 | 89-0006 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | ||
F-16AM | FA-134 | 90-0025 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | Belgian Air Force Demo sp/clr. | |
F-16BM | FB-15 | 80-3590 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | ||
F-16BM | FB-18 | 80-3593 | 10th Wing | Kleine Brogel, Belgium | OCU Special Color | |
A-109BA | H30 | 18 Sqn MRH | 1st Wing | Beauvechain, Belgium | ||
A-109BA | H40 | 18 Sqn MRH | 1st Wing | Beauvechain, Belgium | ||
SF-260D | ST-44 | 5 sm | Beauvechain, Belgium | |||
SF-260D | ST-48 | 5 sm | Beauvechain, Belgium | Tiger Special Color | ||
Hunter B | 274 | 80 UAV Sqn | Florennes, Belgium | |||
JAS39C | 9237 | 211.lt | Caslav, Czech Republic | Tiger Special Color | ||
JAS39D | 9219 | 211.lt | Caslav, Czech Republic | |||
JAS39D | 9220 | 211.lt | Caslav, Czech Republic | |||
Mil Mi-24 | 7354 | 221.lt | Namest, Czech Republic | |||
Mil Mi-35 | 7360 | 221.lt | Namest, Czech Republic | |||
Mirage 2000B | 115-YP | 526 | EC02.005 | Orange,France | ||
Mirage 2000C | 103-YG | 118 | EC01.012 | Cambrai,France | ||
Mirage 2000C | 103-KC | 120 | EC01.012 | Cambrai,France | ||
Mirage 2000C | 103-YE | 122 | EC01.012 | Cambrai,France | ||
Mirage 2000C | 103-YR | 91 | EC01.012 | Cambrai,France | Tiger Special Color | |
Mirage 2000-5F | 118-AX | 77 | EC05.330 | Mont De Marsan,France | ||
Mirage 2000-5F | 118-EB | 76 | EC05.330 | Mont De Marsan,France | ||
Alpha Jet E | 102-MB | E97 | EE02.002 | Dijon,France | ||
Alpha Jet E | 314-TZ | E83 | EAC00.314 | Tours,France | ||
Alpha Jet E | 314-LH | E38 | EAC00.314 | Tours,France | ||
TBM-700A | XH | CEAM | Mont De Marsan,France | |||
Rafale B | 118-EA | 303 | ECE05.330 | Mont De Marsan,France | ||
Rafale B | 118-EB | 304 | ECE05.330 | Mont De Marsan,France | Tiger Special Color | |
Rafale B | 118-EC | 305 | ECE05.330 | Mont De Marsan,France | ||
Tornado IDS | 45+06 | AG51 | Schleswig Jagel,Germany | Tiger Special Color | ||
Tornado IDS | 45+22 | AG51 | Schleswig Jagel,Germany | |||
Tornado IDS | 45+12 | JBG32 | Lechfeld,Germany | Tiger Special Color | ||
Tornado IDS | 45+38 | JBG32 | Lechfeld,Germany | 40th Anniversary of Panavia Sp/clr | ||
JAS39C | 33 | MH 59. Sz.D. R. | Kecskemét,Hungary | Tiger Special Color | ||
JAS39C | 37 | MH 59. Sz.D. R. | Kecskemét,Hungary | |||
JAS39D | 43 | MH 59. Sz.D. R. | Kecskemét,Hungary | |||
AB212ICO | mm81148 | 21st Group | 9th Wing | Grazzanise,Italy | ||
F-16AM | J-003 | 313rd Sqd | Volkel,Netherlands | |||
F-16AM | J-062 | 313rd Sqd | Volkel,Netherlands | |||
F-16AM | J-646 | 313rd Sqd | Volkel,Netherlands | |||
F-16AM | J-866 | 311st Sqd | Volkel,Netherlands | |||
F-16BM | J-884 | 313rd Sqd | Volkel,Netherlands | |||
F-16AM | J-015 | 313rd Sqd | Volkel,Netherlands | Orange Lion Demo Special Color | ||
F-16AM | 276 | 338th Sqd | Orland,Norway | |||
F-16AM | 658 | 338th Sqd | Orland,Norway | |||
F-16AM | 668 | 338th Sqd | Orland,Norway | |||
F-16BM | 681 | 338th Sqd | Orland,Norway | |||
F-16AM | 671 | 338th Sqd | Orland,Norway | Tiger Meet Special Color | ||
F-16BM | 692 | 338th Sqd | Orland,Norway | Tiger Meet Special Color | ||
EF-18M | 15-11 | C.15-24 | Ala 15 | Zaragoza,Spain | ||
EF-18M | 15-34 | C.15-64 | Ala 15 | Zaragoza,Spain | ||
Mirage F1M | 14-22 | C.14-41 | Ala 14 | Albacete,Spain | Tiger Special Color | |
Mirage F1M | 14-20 | C.14-38 | Ala 14 | Albacete,Spain | ||
Mirage F1M | 14-31 | C.14-56 | Ala 14 | Albacete,Spain | Tiger Special Color | |
Mirage F1M | 14-44 | C.14-72 | Ala 14 | Albacete,Spain | ||
Ce560XL | T-784 | LTDB | Bern,Switzerland | |||
F-18C | J-5010 | Fliegerstaffel 11 | Fliegergeschwader 13 | Meiringen,Switzerland | ||
F-18C | J-5011 | Fliegerstaffel 11 | Fliegergeschwader 13 | Meiringen,Switzerland | Tiger Special Color | |
F-18C | J-5012 | Fliegerstaffel 11 | Fliegergeschwader 13 | Meiringen,Switzerland | ||
F-18D | J-5232 | Fliegerstaffel 11 | Fliegergeschwader 13 | Meiringen,Switzerland | ||
Merlin HM1 | ZH838 | 64 | 814th Sqd | Culdrose,United Kingdom | ||
Beech B200 | ZK453 | M | 45th (R) Sqd | Cornwell,United Kingdom | ||
Hunter F6A | N-294 | G-KAXF | ||||
F4U-4 | OE-EAS | |||||
P-51D | 414450/B6-S | N167F | ||||
B-25J | N6123C |