RCAF CP-140 (L-285D) 140105 & 140118 from 407 Sqn 14 Wing at Greenwood Nova Scotia

             The second Joint Warrior exercise of 2010 got underway of the coast of North West Scotland early in October when once again numerous coalition forces brought together various assets from Land Sea & Air for two weeks intensive training at a multi national level. The events over the two weeks featured war scenarios involving all the assets assembled. JW10-2 like all the JW exercises is designed to improve operability between allied forces and prepare crews to conduct combined operations during deployment.

The exercise is in the main around the coast of North West Scotland the exercise HQ are at the Royal Navel base at Faslane. Airfields used for this particular exercise were Kinloss, Lossiemouth, Waddington, Brize Norton, Marham, Lakenheath and Flugplatz Nordholz. The Scottish air bases of Kinloss and Lossiemouth would be the busiest of all the flying units. Kinloss playing host to the maritime aircraft apart from the GAF P3 Orion which operated out of Flugplatz Nordholz. Other aircraft using Kinloss were Royal Navy Hawks from Yeovilton and Falcons of Cobham's.  Lossiemouth played host to 8 J30 Gripens. The forces were spit into Red & Blue and the imaginary war began to unfold.

            The Falcons of Cobham’s play a duel role they can tow aerial targets and also act as attacking aircraft with Hawks supporting. This is done with Hawks flying alongside the Falcon and when the attack is pressed home the Falcon peels away leaving the Hawks to fly a track directly at the target acting as missiles. The Hawks also get instructions from the airborne Command and Control to assist with the intercepting work and dog fighting. Command & Control was taken of by either a NATO E3B from Geilenkirchen in Germany, or a RAF E3D from Waddington.

            GR4’s operating from Marham and supported by a VC10 from Brize Norton. This stood on station off the North Yorkshire coast. The GR4’s would continually threaten and test the opposition’s defences.

            The Swedish Air Force supplied a number of their JAS 39 Gripens of F21 unit from Luleå, Norrbottens flygflottilj playing a major role, by multitasking the aircraft by simultaneously swapping crews to fly air defence counter air close air support and reconnaissance.

            Submarine hunting was taken care of by the compliment of Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) flying from Kinloss they would leave on missions of 8 – 10 hrs searching a huge area supporting the reconnaissance, surveillance and maritime patrol for surface and underwater threats.