Israel will join the RAF’s Cobra Warrior exercise in September along with aircraft from Germany and Italy.
An MoD spokesperson told the UK Defence Journal:
“The Israeli Air Force will be participating Exercise Cobra Warrior in Sep 2019. This is the culminating event for the UK’s Weapons Instructor qualification course.
The exercise will be run out of RAF Waddington.
The Israeli Air Force role, basing and footprint during Ex Cobra Warrior is yet to be determined. Israel are planning to bring an, as yet, unspecified number of F15 aircraft with appropriate support personnel.
Other participants in Ex Cobra Warrior 19 include Germany and Italy.”
It has since been confirmed that RAF Waddington will be the basing location.
This was first reported by The Jewish Chronicle here.
The Cobra Warrior exercise traditionally includes crew and aircraft from other allied air forces that train together with their British counterparts in complex combat scenarios.
In 2018, the RAF invited German and Italian aircraft to take part in the exercise, this year they will be joined by Israeli jets.
Formerly named the Combined Qualified Weapons Instructor, Cobra Warrior is focussed on providing the combined assessment phase for the RAF’s Weapons Instructors.
The Royal Air Force is expected to take part in Blue Flag 2020, which would be the first time British aircraft have trained in Israeli airspace however, some commentators point out that British aircraft routinely transit through Israeli airspace and on occasion in the past, have flown from RAF Akrotiri to help with forest fires.
Last year, Israeli combat pilots attended a joint training seminar with the Typhoon aircrew at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, but reportedly did not arrive with their own aircraft.
Recently, Israeli firm Elbit Systems announced that its subsidiary, Elbit Systems UK Ltd, was awarded an initial contract of circa £10 million and a potential maximum value of £40 million, from the UK Ministry of Defence.
The contract is to provide the MORPHEUS Battlefield Management Application. The initial contract will be performed over a three-year period.
Under the contract Elbit Systems UK will provide the British Army with an operationally proven battle management application for both headquarters and tactical units, based on TORC2 Hâ„¢, Elbit Systems’ command and control platform that has been delivered to many customers worldwide, including to the Australian Defence Forces as part of its Land 200 Tranche 2 battle management system.
Last year, Type 45 Destroyer HMS Duncan and a Spanish frigate docked in the Israeli port city of Haifa.
For the Royal Navy this was the third visit in as many years, recently sold helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, then flagship of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2, docked in Haifa in 2017.
The visit reportedly included meetings between senior NATO officers and their Israeli counterparts, as well as a joint NATO-Israel naval exercise.
“The exercise underscores NATO’s commitment to the strategic relationship with the Israeli Navy and to the maintenance of stability in the region,” the IDF said.
NATO cooperates and discusses its activities with numerous other non-NATO members. The Mediterranean Dialogue was established in 1994 to coordinate in a similar way with Israel and countries in North Africa.
Now we will see some real flying.
Yea because the Brits, Americans, Germans, Swedes, ect don’t do “real” flying. Only the Israelis do. LOL!
Yeah cos bombing Palestinian kids takes real skill
Is this a first? Don’t remember them having jets based over here.
F-35s?! :O
Imagine F-16I Sufa through the Mach Loop…….gosh……
I sometimes wonder if there was a gap for a two seater Typhoon with conformal tanks for long ranger missions……..
There is a definite need for a two seater and not just as an OCU trainer. If and a big if UAVs like Taranis are brought into service the work load on a pilot to control any more than just the one will be very high, especially if they have to deal with arising issues such coming across an un-mapped SAM system etc. Both Apache and F35s have conducted trials with UAVs. The Apache has the benefit of being a two seater, with the gunner controlling the UAVs. The F35 successfully controlled a single Reaper, which conducted a missile strike… Read more »
Not an ideal, no. A reverse situation from that we had with Tornado.
It is pilot load that concerns me.
It is that Israeli pilots who bomb innocent civilians and drop white phosphorous on densely populated areas of Gaza are in those seats where real heroes should sit not state terrorists.
short stubby wings anybody recall how small the jags wings were? thats what you call stubby
Gnat’s were Small and Stubby too. I’d also like to include the F104 but It makes me sad as It Inflicted a lot of pain on all the wrong people.
Gosh it’s fascinating how many ways you can kill people. Israel’s contribution to the World; child-torture, land-theft, house-demolitions, mass-killings, illegal wall, apartheid, piracy at sea, colonisation, illegal siege. mass imprisonment without trial, water-theft, political assassinations, racist laws, forgery, illegal occupation, etc., etc.
‘Who needs enemies when you can have friends like these’.
Hard to see why we’re suddenly getting into bed with the notoriously disingenuous Israelis. It wasn’t so long since that Mossad agents carried out an assassination using fake British passports. They were covertly selling US military tech to China for a long time as well. The epitome of a poor ally.
Why can’t they replace the TORNADO with 2 seat TYPHOON for dedicated strike
I wonder if the Israeli Airforce has in any way shape or form considered the Typhoon as a suitable Fighter Aircraft,politics and FMS aside.
They do not trust our westminster fools to deliver after the Chieftain was stopped by labour in the 1970s.
And we shouldn’t trust them.
Paul T. They get their kit from the US practically free and gratis. So apart from exceptional circumstances they don’t buy anything from anyone else.
I don’t think we should deal with this bully nation
Will be a sight to see. Col Kemp knows what the IDF stand for. Both sides can learn from eachother, in a mad world.
Back in 1982, I walked the Pennine Way; the locals in the Ribble Valley told me that Israeli aircraft regularly exercised there; they could tell the Israelis were flying because they flew under the telephone lines.
Hmmmm.
I was taken in until the phone lines bit.
Two stories spring to mind.
A Welsh Farmer Writing “P*** off Biggles” on his barn roof due to the low flying training.
It backfired as word got around so ever pilot was heading there to see. 🙂
Also the Tornado Squadron tasked with targeting a Telephone box in a sleepy Yorkshire village as a night time training sortie from Bruggen or Laarbruch! Locals must have loved that!
LOL.
Just looked. Plenty of refs on Google about biggles story but cannot find the other.
What utter nonsense.
As Steve has already mentioned, the thought of Israeli fighters in the Mach Loop gives me goose bumps.
Not if they were targeting your house and family with white phosphorus.
Get over it, they do what they have to to survive
1970’s ? That’s one for the teenagers?
I have a friend that flew F/A-18Cs in the Navy. He told me on his first cruise they were off the coast of Israel and they went up against Israel fighters for training. He said he bested an Israeli F-15 flown by an Israeli General and that after the engagement was over the General went ballistic and basically threw a temper tantrum. I guess the General wasn’t used to losing. lol
Picture and heading now changed to an F15.
Annoying, Isn’t it ? I was just getting used to the idea that an F16 could fly below our Telephone Wires, and here we have the F15. H&S would have a Meltdown.
lol yes,being a curious fellow with a serial number of 250 on the Tail I’m sure its a Ra’am not a Baz.
they’re jerks.
Per Ardua Ad Astra – through blindness to atrocities. The RAF has lost all credibility as a military arm of government and now joins those intent on legalising state terrorism.
The RAF has jined the squadrons of state terrorism. Shame.
we don’t want these terrorists over here, send them back to their crusader colony. nasty people.