Practicing international coöperation at Leeuwarden AB


Frisian Flag is a multi national exercise where fighter pilots are trained in offensive and defensive flying missions. Focus during the two-week training is cooperation between the participating countries. The 2013 version of the exercise was held from 15 – 26 April 2013 at Leeuwarden Air Base, The Netherlands. Over 55 aircraft joined in to make the training as realistic as possible.

Missions during conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya show the importance of international cooperation. During Frisian Flag large and complex scenarios are trained with a high level of threads from both air and ground. In this way fighter pilots get highly prepared for the real thing. But also the men and women on the ground, like air traffic controllers, fighter controllers and forward air controllers, get the necessary experience for a real wartime situation.

Flying participants were F-16’s from the Belgian, Dutch and Polish Air Forces, German Eurofighters, Swedish Gripens and Mirage 2000C’s and Mirage F1CR’s from France. A Dutch KDC-10 provided air refueling and a NATO E-3A was responsible for airborne early warning.