The Royal Air Force has kicked off Cobra Warrior 25-2, one of NATO’s largest multinational air exercises, with more than a dozen allied squadrons gathering in Britain for three weeks of high-intensity training.
Running from 12 September to 3 October, the exercise is centred at RAF Waddington and brings together air forces from Canada, Italy, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. Cobra Warrior is designed to test the high-end spectrum of warfighting, placing participants in contested, degraded and operationally limited environments to sharpen their ability to fight peer adversaries.
Group Captain Ray Morley of the RAF explained the purpose: “Cobra Warrior is one of our Combat Air Collective Training events where we practice in the Joint space and alongside our allied partners, in defeating peer threats within a contested, degraded and operationally limited environment, at a time and place of our choosing.”
Aircraft taking part include Canadian CF-18 Hornets, RAF Typhoons, Italian and German fighters, and U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bombers from the 307th Bomb Wing, which arrived at RAF Fairford earlier this month. Transport aircraft and a range of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms are also integrated into the drills.
The training aims to develop joint mission planning, integration and tactical skills across the participating forces within the framework of Composite Air Operations (COMAO). These large-scale mock battles replicate the intensity of modern warfare, forcing crews to adapt tactics, techniques and procedures against a capable adversary.
Cobra Warrior has become a flagship for collective training, offering crews the chance to operate in congested skies against simulated threats while testing the interoperability of allied forces.
By combining fighters, bombers, transport aircraft and ISR platforms in a single environment, Cobra Warrior 25-2 aims to provide a realistic proving ground for allied air power, reinforcing NATO’s ability to project force in complex and contested battlespaces.
Given how rare this training is for NATO pilots you wonder how PLAAF pilots would perform in modern combat given no one in their air force has ever conducted an operation and their training seem to be quite mechanical and formation based.
Operational experience is gained quickly in war (ask Ukraine) and much previous operational experience is often counter productive ( ask the RAF very early WW2). We often console ourselves with the “ operational experience “ argument.. but historically is a small advantage that quickly disappears in the face of numbers and depth of resources and can actually create a “lose condition” due to hubris. The Imperial Japanese navy is the best example and concluding with battle of the Japanese sea (Tsushima) and then its fall in ww2 is probably the very best example of this process. Essentially until 1850s Japan had literally zero knowledge of or experience of naval warfare (over the previous 200 years you would be executed for even attempting to build an occean going ship..it was against the law). In 1868 the Meiji Restoration decided to build a navy.. they modelled it on the RN and created a massive naval ship building endeavour..it built a navy from essentially scratch between 1876 and 1893..having zero operational experience..they then between 1894 and 1904 it went out and defeated the navies of every major power in the western pacific… first china and then russia.. becoming the preeminent naval power in the western pacific then in 141-42 we have the USN.. a navy with almost no combat experience suddenly facing battle hardend navies to the east and the west..we know how well that went for the battle hardened and experienced imperial Japanese navy ( considered one of the most competent and experienced navies on the planet at that time with a 50 year history of winning).
So we all get a bound in the the PLAAF and PLA has no operational experience….. that is true but one thing all the armed forces of china do is practice a lot.. and it’s a hell of a lot more than everyone thinks.. this is not a finically broke nation that starves its military of cash..on the contrary the PLAN and PLAAF and PLAgF are flush with money to burn or fire off.
So let’s just look at large scale PLAAF exercises that are closer to us than we realise
joint Eagles of Civilization 2025 exercise may 2025 in Egypt: single and twin seat fighters, AEW aircraft and air to air refuelling aircraft all doing a joint exercise 350 miles from UK sovereign territory and 6000km from home.
Falcon shield July 2024: UEA and PLAAF joint exercise when the UEA sent its European combat aircraft to china for joint exercises
Falcon strike ( every year) joint exercises in Thailand ( this even includes ground and naval forces from both nations)
Indus shield.. 2023 massive multinational exercises in Pakistan even included our best NATO member Hungary and all our Middle Eastern best friends.
Shaheen ( eagle ) annual since 2011 joint exercises with Pakistani airforce, goes from one nation to the other each year.
Apart from those international exercise it’s know that the PLAAF undertake constant intrusion exercises across the Chineses regions, it also participates in the final Battalion level exercise for each of the PLAGFs amphibious combined arms battalions as they go through their annual 3 monthly amphibious exercises ( they do about 4-8 battalion level training programmes a year each ending in a joint PLAN, PLAGF and PLAAF battalion level amphibious exercise). They also essentially do about one province level wartime exercise each year that involves everything in the province,including civil defence. Then they also there essentially annual practice envelopment of Taiwan in which they cycle through all the elements of a war in the china seas…obviously that’s in reality a joint exercise with Taiwan being an unwilling but very useful participant..
They also react to every single western military move in the china seas.. they don’t do that to just piss off the west or make a domestic point they do that for exercise and intelligence gathering… why does everyone think they threw 3 Type 93 and Type 93A SSNs in front of our previous CBG.. they know they are shite SSNs with no chance..but it was all practice… but practice within the bounds of a core tenet “ hide your strength”.
This has barely started and already lemming like photographers are standing on the A15 at Waddington dicing with death. Most of the action rightly takes place over the sea but usually something to see over Lincolnshire. Always nice to welcome the Luftwaffe back with a smile now.
As a part time “Lemming” I tend to avoid that part but as a full time Biker, I do like to have the occasional race if conditions are right.
Always good entertainment at the Tempest Arms just down the road though, if you like the smell of aviation fuel with your pork scratchings ! 🏍️✈️
I meant to ask what bike you ride ?