In the Autumn Volkel AB hosted the Exercise Cold Igloo. The exercise was split over three different weeks. The first one on the end of September and the second and third week at the end of October. During the exercise Volkel AB was visited by some foreign jets. The Italian Air Force participated with 4 Tornado´s from Ghedi AB and the USAF was present with 4 F-15E Strike Eagles from Lakenheath AB. In the last week the Greek Air Force sent over 3 F-16´s. Off course the Royal Netherlands Air Force participated with the local F-16´s.

Training for pilots and groundcrews
Cold Igloo is about practicing procedures. For example what to do if a mission plan changes during the mission. Cold Igloo is not only for the pilot, but it is also for training the groundcrews and fire-brigade for working with different types of jets and circumstances. The number of missions is also limited (only 8 over the whole exercise). Recce reports visited Volkel AB during the second week.

We published an article about this exercise in the December 2016 issue of Full Stop magazine.