70 // JULY 2018 #364 http://www.airforcesmonthly.comNATO Tiger Meet 2018
operations, extending from north of Warsaw in
an arc to the Baltic Sea north of Gdańsk. Other
flying areas were located closer to Poznań.Special schemes
The NATO Tiger Association tradition of
decorating one or more participating aircraft
was well represented this year and only
two units were unable to bring aircraft in
special schemes. Among those sporting
attractive artwork were three Eurofighters:
the ‘Ghost Tiger’ from Germany’s Taktisches
Luftwaffengeschwader 74 (TaktLwG 74),
Spain’s ‘142 Tiger’ from Escuadrón 142 at
Albacete and Italy’s specially marked XII
Gruppo jet. Two F-16s had tiger patterns
applied to their tails: a Belgian jet from 31
Squadron and a Royal Netherlands Air Force
313 Squadron aircraft that commemorated
the unit’s 65th anniversary. Greece’s
F-16D wore a 335 Mira legend along the
spine, together with black and white tiger
stripes on the fuselage. The host nation
provided two F-16C/Ds with tiger stripes
incorporated in the grey camouflage pattern;
a third had a tiger’s head on the tail and
black stripes over the upper fuselage.
The Turkish 192 Filo was unable to contribute
aircraft, as were the two fighter squadrons of
the Armée de l’Air at Mont-de-Marsan, but
both countries sent observers. However,
the Aéronavale’s Flottille 11F brought several
Rafale Ms, including one displaying artwork
on the tail. Among the oldest aircraft
present were the three Tornado ECRs
from TaktLwG 51, including one decorated
with a large tiger’s head on the fin and
another with black and yellow markings
on the fuselage and underwing tanks.Above: Wearing a new scheme applied for NTM 2018, Luftwaffe Eurofighter 31+00 is known as ‘Ghost
Tiger’. It’s flown by TaktLwG 74 at Neuburg, which inherited the ‘Bavarian Tigers’ traditions of the former- Staffel at Lechfeld. Below: Unmarked Polish F-16D Block 52 serial 4078 from the 31. BLT that hosted
the latest Tiger Meet leads a pair of Gripens: Hungarian two-seat JAS 39D serial 43 from the 1. Harcászati
repülőszázad (1st Tactical Fighter Squadron) ‘Puma’ and Czech single-seat JAS 39C serial 9234 from the - taktická letka (211th Tactical Squadron) at Čáslav air base in eastern Bohemia.