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Some 70 combat aircraft gathered at IAF Base Ovda in early November for the 4th bi-ennial multinational Blue Flag exercise. This time the emphasis appears to have been on high-level air to air and air to ground simulations, with, for the first time 5th gen F-35 Lightning III aircraft participating alongside 4th gen fighter jets and G-550 AEW assets. Much of the action took place in an area referred to as “Nowhereland”, anyone with access to one of the commercial tracking sites can see just exactly where that is and who might be the simulated foe.
Noted on various days were
201 Squadron IAF F-16I Sufa: 808, 846, 849, 854, 869, 871, 876, 878, 880 & 892
140 Sq IAF F-35A Adir: 909, 913, 926, 927 & 928
133 Sq IAF F-15A/D# Baz: 681, 689, 693, 706#, 715# & 733# (pooled a/c)
115* / 117 Sq IAF F-16C Barak: 313#, 318, 344*, 350*, 389#, 391# & 399#
(# = former 110 Sq a/c reassigned after disbandment)
122 Sq IAF G-550 AEW: 537 & 569, a GV visited on 10/11
32 Stormo AMI F-35A: 32-03/MM7334, 32-04/MM7335, 32-07/MM7357, 32-08/MM7358, 32-11/MM7361 plus one
AMI Typhoon EF2000s: 4-2/MM7303, 37-25/MM7294, 37-12? and one from 36 Stormo
14 Stormo G550 AEW: MM62293/14-11
335 Mira HAF F-16C/D#: 001, 017, 019 & 029#
RJAF 2 Sqn F-16AB/BM: 4 at least identified from “electronicintifada.net” as 236, 237, 248 & 250
52FW SP F-16CM: 90-0338, 342, 343, 344, 351, 403, 417, 91-0818, 827, 828, 92-3918 (plus one?)
TLG-71 “Richthofen” Lw EF2000: 30+50, 30+56, 30+83, 30+86, 31+08 & 31+26
Support was provided by AMI B767s, Israeli, Greek, Jordanian and USAF C-130s, German Airbus 400s and an Antonov An124.
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