FighterControl

Afternoon all,

I thought I'd share some images from a couple of trips East in search of Cobra Warrior participants. Day 1 (05/09) was spent at Lakenheath for starters, in the hope of catching the Norwegians off 06 (which didn't happen...) before heading over to Mildenhall in the afternoon for the Vipers. OTIS44 dropping in late in the day was a welcome bonus.

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 22-5683/LN | US Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 05/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 22-5684/LN | US Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 05/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet A | C-GLTO | Top Aces | RAF Lakenheath | 05/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle | 91-0327/LN | US Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 05/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon | 96-0083/SP | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 05/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon | 91-0407/SP | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 05/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon | 91-0352/SP | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 05/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Boeing RC-135V Rivet Joint | 64-14844/OF | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 05/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Boeing RC-135V Rivet Joint | 64-14844/OF | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 05/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Day 2 kicked off at Mildenhall for more Vipers, before wrongly heading over to lakenheath at the same time as the Norwegians launched, and then subsequently missing their diversion into Mildenhall... So I spent the rest of the afternoon back at Mildenhall to cut my losses. I did stop by Lakenheath once again to at least catch a record shot of the Norwegians returning from their afternoon sortie before heading up to Lincolnshire.

Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon | 90-0818/SP | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 06/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon | 96-0080/SP | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 06/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle | 98-0135/LN | US Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 06/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-16D Fighting Falcon | 91-0472/SP | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 06/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker | 62-3516 | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 06/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon | 90-0829/SP | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 06/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon | 91-0361/SP | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 06/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon | 91-0338/SP | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 06/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-16CM Fighting Falcon | 91-0342/SP | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 06/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 5664 | Royal Norwegian Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 05/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

A much better morning was had at Waddington the following day, despite the the NATO E-3A going tech.... Great to see the Canadian Hornets up close

McDonnell Douglas CF-188A Hornet | 188730 | Royal Canadian Air Force | RAF Waddington | 07/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

McDonnell Douglas CF-188A Hornet | 188735 | Royal Canadian Air Force | RAF Waddington | 07/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Gulfstream G550 CAEW | MM62303/14-12 | Italian Air Force | RAF Waddington | 07/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

McDonnell Douglas CF-188A Hornet | 188742 | Royal Canadian Air Force | RAF Waddington | 07/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

McDonnell Douglas CF-188A Hornet | 188742 | Royal Canadian Air Force | RAF Waddington | 07/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

McDonnell Douglas CF-188A Hornet | 188757 | Royal Canadian Air Force | RAF Waddington | 07/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

McDonnell Douglas CF-188A Hornet | 188735 | Royal Canadian Air Force | RAF Waddington | 07/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

McDonnell Douglas CF-188A Hornet | 188757 | Royal Canadian Air Force | RAF Waddington | 07/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Finally, I returned to Lakenheath last Friday (15/09) for my first taste of Fast Climb Friday, which was an awesome experience in itself, but also gave me the opportunity to finally nail the Norwegians, with all six flying. Great to catch the A-4 flying too, although I only just made it into a less than desirable position to photograph its approach in time having moved over from the 06 end a minute too late.... Another quick visit to Mildenhall also yielded JAKE17 returning.

Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle | 91-0602/LN | US Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle | 91-0312/LN | US Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 20-5598/LN | US Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 19-5493/LN | US Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 5386 | Royal Norwegian Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 5388 | Royal Norwegian Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Douglas A-4N Skyhawk II | C-FGZE | Top Aces | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Dassault-Dornier Alpha Jet A | C-GITA | Top Aces | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 5664 | Royal Norwegian Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 5502 | Royal Norwegian Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 5385 | Royal Norwegian Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II | 5666 | Royal Norwegian Air Force | RAF Lakenheath | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

Boeing RC-135V Rivet Joint | 62-4131/OF | US Air Force | RAF Mildenhall | 15/09/23 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr

A lot of images I know, but hopefully they give a good flavour of the last couple of weeks. There are more on my Flickr for those interested

Thanks for looking

Shaun

They are very nice, worth the effort. Do really like the first one.

Great pics, thanks for posting.

These are a different class! Nice post thanks for sharing

Click on a photo - details are on the Flickr page - not always but they are here.

Lovely set fella.

Superb set

That's a helluva nice set of images. Very hard to pick a favourite as there are a lot of stand-out shots for me. However the F-16D pulling up with reheat lit and lots of fluff probably gets the vote. Excellent work.

great shots

Nice selection.

Great set,thanks for posting

Superb set, well done

Stunning photography! I have not seen an Italian Gulfstream before and my take is that a pretty executive jet has been made doubly-ugly by all the additional lumps and bumps. I'm sure it is effective even so.

Thanks very much all, much appreciated

Brilliant range in lovely light

Great set Shaun Very crisp images in great light. Bet you're pleased you got them last week
Thanks for posting

3Greens