RAF Waddington & RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, 3 September to 3 October 2025
The second Cobra Warrior exercise of the year, centred on Waddington, Lincolnshire, but including the high-end spectrum of warfighting, placing participants in contested, degraded and operationally limited environments to increase knowledge and cooperation against peer adversaries. The exercise included air forces from Canada, Italy, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The American contingent, primarily F35s, operated from their permanent base at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk with the British and Italian Eurofighter Typhoons based at RAF Coningsby, a stones-throw east of Waddington. More Typhoons, from Germany joined the Canadian Hornets at Waddington.
Most missions, almost daily, included aerial expeditions to the north, covering the North Sea, Yorkshire highlands and the famous Mach Loop route through the North-Western mountains and valleys.
Transport aircraft and a range of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms are also integrated into the drills. Two B-52H Stratofortress long range bombers that had arrived earlier at RAF Fairford also participated.
The event created a great opportunity for UK photographers to take advantage of the facilities and understanding of the Waddington base in allowing close and safe areas to watch arrivals and departures from the A15 road along the eastern perimeter.
Although these ladder bearing crowds are normally spread throughout the exercise, this year there was a coincidental attraction of great novelty as JASDF (Japanese Air Self-Defense Force) were due to make a brief visit the German airbase at Laage for a deployment called ‘Atlantic Eagle’ and planned a short familiarisation visit to RAF Coningsby during the early part of the exercise.
Two F-15 Eagles supported by two Kawasaki C2 jet transports arrived with a Boeing 767 and new KC-46 airtanker ferried them via Elmendorf, Alaska and Goose Bay; the tankers residing at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire for the duration. Although the Eagles were hangared throughout, this served to concentrate the enthusiasts’ attention on their arrival and departure slots to northern Germany.
The C-2 had only previously visited the UK for a Royal International Air Tattoo. For photographers who had never had the pleasure of the excellent airshows and viewing facilities at Japanese bases these extra visitors were probably the military treat of the year.
