Florennes Air Base, Belgium, hosted the Tactical Weapons Meet (TWM) exercise from 5 until 16 June 2017. This exercise was the first large scale exercise since the TLP left Florennes in 2009. Six countries participated in this episode of the exercise.

Participants
The Belgian hosts participated with their home-based F-16s. The Spanish and Italian Air Force came to Belgium with (E)F-2000s. The Italians from 4° Stormo based at Grosseto and the Spaniards from Ala 11 at Moron Air Base. The RAF joined in with Hawk T.1s from 100 Squadron stationed at RAF Leeming. The Polish Air Force send Mig-29s from 23 BLT at Mink Mazowiecki Air Base. And although Mig-29s often are the stars of an exercise or air show, this time they were beaten by the Greek delegation. The Greek came to Belgium with F-4E Phantoms from Andravida’s 338 Mira. The German Air Force participated also but flew their EF-2000s from their own home bases.

The TWM Exercise
The first Tactical Weapons Meet took place in 1962 and was since then held every two years during the Cold War days. In 1976 the very last TWM was held at Twente Air Base in the Netherlands. In the following 40 years the TWM was not organized anymore, but that changed in 2017 when the Belgian Ardennes were the theatre for a TWM again. The first week of the exercise was reserved for close air combat. Basic Fighter Manoeuvers were trained on a one versus one basis. The second week focused on COMAO missions (Combined Air MAnoeuvring Operation) in which operations above “enemy” territory were trained.