RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, 16-26 March 2026
Cobra Warrior is the UK’s premier air combat training event which unites aircrews and aircraft from many international air forces. In the past participants have come from Germany, Italy, Saudia Arabia, Switzerland and Canada.
For this year’s iteration the RAF is joined by the German Air Force’s Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 74 and the Polish Air Force’s 3rd Squadron, bringing Eurofighter and F‑16C Fighting Falcon capabilities into combined missions.
The exercise is controlled by directing staff at RAF Waddington, supported by personnel from RAF Boulmer, RAF Honington, RAF Leeming, and RAF Brize Norton to enable realistic coordination of large‑scale missions across UK airspace. the flagship exercise sharpens the joint mission planning, integration and tactical execution skills essential to modern coalition air operations. Delivered by the Air & Space Warfare Centre and sponsored by No. 11 Group, Cobra Warrior pushes frontline forces to operate at the highest levels of complexity and realism. The training area stretches across the North Sea, northern England, and southern Scotland. It measures roughly 150 by 80 nautical miles making it one of the largest exercise airspaces in Europe
Along with the visiting German and Polish aircraft based at Waddington for the duration of the exercise, UK Typhoons, F‑35Bs and Air Mobility Force aircraft such as Voyager or A400M, alongside Wildcat Mk1 and Chinook support from the Joint Helicopter Force contribute to a fully integrated multinational force. NATO E‑3A and US Air Force E‑3G aircraft provide airborne command and control for complex, multinational composite air operations together.
Cobra Warrior is a biannual exercise. This is the first in 2026 and ran from 16–27 March with one mission a day launching between 10:00 and 11:30 returning 13:00 and 14:30.
A typical morning for Cobra Warrior.
08:51 A400 departed Brize Norton, lands Waddington 09:28, departs Waddington 09:51
Eindhoven 09:16GMT a Multinational MRTT Fleet Airbus KC-30M departs to provide inflight refuelling flying North and South tracks.
A Voyager departs Brize at 09:41 heading Lichfield RC for more refuelling
At 09:54 a flight of 4 GAF Typhoons departs Waddington for the exercise.
At 09:59 a flight of 4 RAF Typhoons departs Lossiemouth to join the Germans.
A flight of 4 Draken Falcon-20’s departs Teesside at 10:06 followed at 10:29 by a flight of 3 Draken L-159E Albatrosses to provide the enemy.
Although flying was cancelled on Wednesday 25th due to the strong winds. Thursday saw the final exercise with all components in the morning with 2 Casa295 from Poland and an A-400 from Germany arriving in the afternoon to collect the ground equipment. The Polish F-16s departed just after 15:00 in two flights of three, each forming up to flypast in formation. The Germans departed Friday morning going for a mixture of local flights before flying off to Germany.
At present there is no information of a second exercise this year.
