shipping), high value asset protection defence
and escort of heavy aircraft and helicopters.
An RAF Airbus Voyager and Luftwaffe
Airbus A310MRTT provided air-to-air refuelling
for each mission and saw both forces’
Euro ghters refuel from the other nation’s
tanker. The German pilots simulated use of
the IRIS-T and AMRAAM missiles as well as
the Mauser BK-27 gun.
The missions were own over the North
Sea and also made use of the Spadeadam
electronic warfare range in northern England
as well as OTA-E (Operational Training Area-
Echo), which is located over Northumberland
and up to Scotland as far as the former RAF
Leuchars. Bad weather led to the cancellation
of one of the ying days.The German pilots performed purely
air-to-air missions as the Luftwaffe is still
working up its air-to-ground capability with
the Euro ghter. The mission commander
role was shared between each countries’
Euro ghter pilots.
The exercise was organised by 92
(Reserve) Tactics and Training Sqn, a
non- ying unit that is part of the Air Warfare
Centre at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. The
squadron’s badge depicts a cobra, hence its
inclusion in the name of the exercise. The
event was formerly entitled the Combined
Quali ed Weapons Instructor (CQWI) Course
Op Phase.
Four RAF Typhoon pilots were using Cobra
Warrior as their graduation exercise. Their
Typhoon Quali ed Weapons Instructor Course
was organised by 29(R) Sqn at Coningsby.
Station Commander of RAF Coningsby Gp
Capt Jez Attridge, said: “The RAF Typhoon
weapons course is quite mature now, we’ve had
Typhoon for ten years, and [it] encompasses
air-to-air and air-to-surface. We are now feeding
in all the extra lessons from Operation Shader
in the Middle East as well as some of the new
capabilities we’re bringing online. This now is
a step change in how we are doing it, with the
Luftwaffe coming onboard.”
The officer commanding the course who is
assigned to 29(R) Sqn (a new RAF security
policy stipulates that personnel below Group
Captain rank cannot be named), said: “The
whole idea of Exercise Cobra Warrior is to
learn integration between all UK assets so
we’ve got pretty much every single RAFplatform involved. The biggest point, from a
UK perspective, is to understand and learn
how to integrate and clearly that has been
improved by having the Luftwaffe here and
building that relationship. This Cobra Warrior
is purely for the RAF Typhoon weapons
school and the Luftwaffe weapons school. All
the other UK courses have started running
now and they graduate in October.”INCEPTION
German involvement in Cobra Warrior
originally came about from a request by the
commander of the Luftwaffe’s Euro ghter
Fighter Weapons School Lt Col Julius Kurbel
to meet his counterpart at the RAF Typhoon
weapons school.
Lt Col Kurbel visited Coningsby 18 months
ago and the two commanding officers
exchanged details of their courses.
An invitation was then extended to the
Luftwaffe to take part in Cobra Warrior and
the possibility of its future involvement is
being examined. As this is the rst Luftwaffe
Euro ghter weapons course, the syllabus will
be analysed before the next one, which is
expected to start in the autumn.
As to whether the two other NATO
members that y Typhoons could take part in
future Cobra Warriors, Gp Capt Attridge said:
“I believe the Spanish and Italians currently
hold weapons instructor courses internally.
So we now have the opportunity to make
this a Euro ghter nation forum where we can
develop and learn together – that is what we
would like to see.”http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 15Above: A Luftwaffe EF2000 taxiing at RAF
Coningsby on March 22 prior to departing
on an Exercise Cobra Warrior sortie. All
photos Key-Dino Carrara14-15_cobraDC.mfDCDC.indd 15 08/04/2016 11: