Air Defender 2023 at Jagel [14/06/2023]

Air Defender 2023 at Fliegerhorst Schleswig on the morning of 14/06/2023

From 12 until 23 June 2023 NATO and the partnercountries held the largest air defense exercise in its history: Air Defender 2023.
With almost 10,000 personnel and 250 airplanes from 25 countries, each day a large number of sorties were flown over the whole of Europe, but focussed on Germany, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Sorties were also flown to Romania and the Baltic States to show NATO’s willingness to defend also these countries in case of aggression.
Fliegerhorst Schleswig (Schleswig Air Base), or Fliegerhorst Jagel, in Schleswig-Holstein in the north of Germany in addition to its many Panavia ‘Tornado’ ECR aircraft was host to 16 General Dynamics F-16C ‘Fighting Falcon’ (Air National Guard, USAF), 6 (and later 12) Fairchild A-10C ‘Thunderbolt II’ (USAF), 3 SAAB JAS-39C ‘Gripen’ (Hungarian AF), 1 SAAB JAS-39D ‘Gripen’ (Hungarian AF) and 4 General Dynamics F-16CG ‘Night Falcon’ (Turkish AF).
Below are the photos of the start-up of a Panavia ‘Tornado’ ECR near its shelter at Fliegerhorst Schleswig in the morning of the third day of the exercise, Wednesday 14 June 2023.