The biannually held Joint Warrior exercise is the largest exercise held within the UK and Europe. This exercise is unique in that it uses live assets from all of the armed forces (land sea & air) from numerous NATO nations. Joint Warrior was originated by NATO after the UN passed a mandate allowing the use of armed forces in order to stabilise any unrest and prevent any escalation. Joint Warrior is not designed around any real world event it is planned to test and train all the systems that a multi national operation is likely to face through a variety of scenarios. Generally the exercise is loosely based on two or three counties with different social economic background or that have dissimilar geophysical requirements. The simulated dispute realistically tests what the forces will encounter in operations of conflict and crisis such as terrorist activity, insurgency, disputed territory. Military skills practiced will include anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, mine countermeasures, live firing, counter-smuggling and counter-insurgency, electronic warfare, and logistics support. During the course of the exercise all participants will swap from being the defending force to that of the offensive force in order to better understand the implications of either side. Participating crews take turns in planning each mission and then briefing this to the other pilots flying so they understand the mission of the objectives.

          During the opening few days of the exercise stormy weather at Lossiemouth caused the cancellation of numerous flights which due to time constrains would not be re-flown and consequently lost, however over the whole of the exercise all training objectives would be achieved. The ranges at Spadeadam,Tain & Cape Wrath were used by all those taking part, so as to gain heavy weapons experience concrete precision bombs were being used to simulate close ground support on Garvey Island by the crews. Daily operations from Lossiemouth generally saw each unit flying three sorties per day with occasional visits from 100 Sqn Hawks    

        Focusing on the air assets Lossiemouth again hosted the majority of aircraft involved utilizing based aircraft Tornado GR4’s of XV Sqn, Typhoon FGR4’s of 1 & 6Sqn’s. Other RAF aircraft and units on site included Puma HC1/2 33Sqn, C130J 47Sqn. Foreign participants hosted at Lossiemouth were Tornado IDS Tactical Air Wing 51 of the German Air Force and Saab JAS 39C/D Gripen from the Swedish Air Force. Originally the station was to have hosted F18’s & F16’s from the US Marines & Belgium Air Force respectfully.