The annual exercise Frisian Flag took place at Leeuwarden Air Base (ICAO:EHLW) in the Netherlands from 28 March to 8 April 2022 and this year there were many foreign participants involved. Several air defence missions and ground attack missions were flown from the Frisian airbase Leeuwarden during Frisian Flag. The exercise lasted almost two weeks and the participating pilots trained to perform complex missions in international cooperation with a high intensity. Scenarios which may occur during future NATO Response Force (NRF) deployments were intensively performed. With the tensions in Eastern Europe and the war in the Ukraine in mind, this was a very important exercise for the participants; the participants took off twice a day and performed several tasks in parallel during this realistic scenario. The air defence missions were flown in airspace which is defended against invading enemy planes to maintain a No-Fly Zone. The whole northern part of the country and areas at the North Sea were designated daily for the exercise. For the Netherlands this was the first time in history that F-35A Lightning II participated. The 322 Squadron at Leeuwarden reached its Initial Operational Capability (IOC) status last year and is now fully capable to join training scenarios as practiced in Frisian Flag; the last F-16’s left Leeuwarden on 5 July 2021. This is a huge milestone for the RNLAF during the introduction trajectory of the F-35A. The American contributor this year was the participation of twelve F-16C Fighting Falcons from the Italian base Aviano. The most remarkable participant in this edition was the Canadian Air Force and it was the first time that this air force joined the exercise.
The Canadians have become more active thanks to the rising tensions (due to the conflict) and more active in Europe being a member of NATO. The Canadians already had multiple deployments in Romania in the past and are now in Europe for their next tour. Frisian Flag was for these pilots the perfect exercise to train in the European corporation. Initially the Polish Air Force was to participate but they had to cancel their contribution due to their high readiness in Poland due to the Ukrainian war. The Italians replaced the Polish Air Force by sending a few Tornado IDS and EF2000 Eurofighters for the exercise. A fixed contributor in the past years was France and this year they sent Mirage 2000D’s for the exercise. Additionally, the French Navy joined by flying in their Marine Rafales.
Text: Alex van Noije & Joris van Boven Photos: Alex van Noije