Arctic Tiger 2007 - NATO Tiger Meet

[Steve Railsback]

The NATO Tiger Association will be checking out the Polar-light from september 24th till october the 1st during the annual NATO Tiger Meet exercise nicknamed 'Arctic Tiger'. The Tigers from 338 Skv will host this event from their homebase at Ørland

Links:
http://www.natotigers.org
http://www.mil.no/fol/at07/start/;js...estid=13355289



Participants to Arctic Tiger

TIGER Squadrons/ Nation / Aircaft
338 Squadron / Norway / F-16 AM
11 Staffel / Swiss / F-18C/D
814 NAS / UK / Merlin
230 Squadron / UK / PUMA
321 Squadron / Germany / TORN ECR
512 Squadron / Germany / TORN
335 Squadron / Greece / A-7E
31 Squadron / Belgium / F-16
EC 01.012 / France / M2000C
EC 05.330 / France / Rafale
Flotille 11 F / France / Super Etendard
301 Esquadra / Portugal / F-16
231Squadron / Czech Republic / MI-24 HIND
151 Squadron / Spain / F-18 A
142 Squadron / Spain / Mirage F1 CT
N° 1 Squadron / NATO / E-3A
192 Squadron / Turkey / F-16C/D

OTHER participants / Nation / Aircraft
300 Squadron / Norway / Sea King
335 Squadron / Norway / C-130
7200 Squadron / Norway / Bell 412
NEWC/717 sqn / Norway / DA20
Aero with SAS Squadron / Norway / B 737
100 ARW / US / KC-135































The opening parade













F-16's























C-130



NATO AWACS











A-7

[Steve Railsback]

[Pablo666]

Wow, cool pix, I love Tigers

[futurepilot2004]

Fantastic photos!!!

[scottyboy]

Excellent Photos, thanks for sharing.

[ditedonc]

wow wonderful pics thx steve !!


I really like the Swiss choice for F-18 hornet, I was in Switzerland during summer and I saw some of those during takeoff from Payern airfield they are awesome !

Please tell me who still use the a-7 seems to be greece but I'm not sure, anyone?

[Steve Railsback]

A few more

Tiger formation

[Tolstoy]

With all the tiger mascots and fanfare, the question that begs asking is what, exactly, is the benefit to NATO? Do the squadrons participating conduct a lot of exercises, and if so, are they really constructive?

I'm completely ignorant of these NATO meet-ups so I'll freely admit that the all the stripes, painted planes and droptanks with tiger stripes tend to mislead me. I kinda assumed it was basically a Red Flag exercise in purpose?

[ase290406]

Well I guess NATO is trying to market itself somehow. Make the public say NATO is Ok, we still need it. With the Soviets gone, budget problems and so on... But that doesn't mean they can't exercise after all the public display is over.

[stoff]

With all the tiger mascots and fanfare, the question that begs asking is what, exactly, is the benefit to NATO? Do the squadrons participating conduct a lot of exercises, and if so, are they really constructive?

I'm completely ignorant of these NATO meet-ups so I'll freely admit that the all the stripes, painted planes and droptanks with tiger stripes tend to mislead me. I kinda assumed it was basically a Red Flag exercise in purpose?

http://www.natotigers.org/ntapage/nta_03.html

And apart from the exercises.
How about improve team spirit ?
isnt that important to you ?


sic

"ORIGIN
Following the wishes of M.Pierre Messner, the then French defense minister, the Association of Tiger Squadrons was established in 1959 to improve relationships between individual squadrons within NATO."


"Improvement of solidarity between NATO members > The creation and maintenance of team-spirit and camaraderie between the participating members
The exchange of experiences and cooperation in line with the military goals of NATO"

[Chwyatt]

Well I guess NATO is trying to market itself somehow. Make the public say NATO is Ok, we still need it. With the Soviets gone, budget problems and so on... But that doesn't mean they can't exercise after all the public display is over.

Indeed. That is still a big and important job NATO faces. NATO still has an important role, but at the same time has more (often ill-informed) critics than ever. Tiger Meets, imo, have a useful role in building solidarity between air forces. Not as obvious as exercises, but still a useful way of sharing ideas.

[Whitcomb]

The staff on the NATO AWACS, a member from each country? Where would it be based?

[Tolstoy]

I see. So it's more a team-building objective than any major strategic 'brushing up' of skills and whatnot.

I don't discount the importance of comraderie within international units working as one, it's rather the thought of NATO painting tiger stripes on absolutely everything is just a bit unnerving I suppose. Nonetheless, I can see the benefit in such an exercise. Tony the Frosties tiger just kinda put me off

The multi-crewed AWACS is a good example of this very purpose though I suppose, so if it all has a constructive purpose and NATO isn't simply whoring itself out to the public, that's good!

[baboon6]

The staff on the NATO AWACS, a member from each country? Where would it be based?

More info on NATO AWACS force, it's based in Germany:
http://www.e3a.nato.int/

[gatomalo]

WOW!!! Absolutely fantastic pictures! You can really see the excitement these crews have for these exercises. Awesome!!

As for the doubters, well, it seems that you simply dont understand the importance of team work, solidarity and integrating common procedures amongst friendly air forces. The fact that they paint tiger stripes on the equipment doesnt make it a watered down exercise. It is simply designed as morale building and excitement generator. Besides, any exercise that can bring countries together like Greece and Turkey cant be all that bad.

Oh, and to think that there is no longer a need for NATO is rather comical and ignorant.