Israel hosts its largest-ever international air force exercise Israeli, American, Greek, and Polish air personnel square off against a fictional enemy state in two-week drill BY JUDAH ARI GROSS October 30, 2015, 12:53 am 26
Air forces from around the world have gathered deep in the Arava desert in the south of Israel for the past week and a half to take part in the largest aerial exercise in the history of the Israeli Air Force.
The “Blue Flag” exercise, which is continuing through November 3, pits the Israeli Air Force, the United States Air Force, Greece’s Hellenic Air Force and the Polish Air Force against a fictional enemy state, the captain in charge of all IAF exercises told The Times of Israel Thursday night.
A number of other countries, including Germany, also sent pilots and officers to observe the exercise, but did not take part.
This joint drill is the second “Blue Flag” exercise; the first took place in 2013 and was the largest multi-lateral exercise the IAF had ever hosted.
The various air forces collaborated closely through every step of the current exercise, the IAF captain said, from planning to execution and finally to debriefing.
Though the exercise began on October 18, planning for it started nearly eight months ago, the Israeli official said, with an IAF representative contacting each participating country and initially asking, “What do you want to train for?”
Those requests came together to form the plan for “Blue Flag,” which sent Israeli and American F-15 squadrons, along with Israeli, Hellenic and Polish F-16 squadrons, flying through nearly all of Israel’s air space, firing simulated weapons against fictional enemy missile launchers, convoys and aircraft, he said.
Though the drill was intensive and demanding, it was designed more to test the mettle of the men and women behind the controls than to test the technical capabilities of the fighter jets themselves.
“We wanted it to be challenging for the airmen, rather than for the machines,” said the IAF captain, who cannot be named for security reasons.
In order to “put the airmen through their paces,” he explained, the people running the exercise tried to surprise them, putting them in situations where “the pilot doesn’t know where their target is coming from.”
“Blue Flag” ends next Thursday.
A Polish F-16 fighter jet takes off during the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise at Ovda Airfield near Eilat on October 26, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
Representatives from multiple countries, including the United States and Greece, listen to a briefing during the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise in southern Israel on October 26, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
An Israeli F-16 prepares for take-off during the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise at Ovda Airfield near Eilat on October 27, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
Israeli and foreign fighter jets fly in formation over the Red Sea during the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise at Ovda Airfield near Eilat on October 27, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
A Hellenic Air Force pilot smiles for the camera during the two-week long ‘Blue Flag’ exercise at Ovda Airfield near Eilat on October 27, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
German pilots mingle with representatives from the Israeli Air Force, US Air Force, Hellenic Air Force and Polish Air Force during the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise in Ovda Airfield near Eilat in southern Israel on October 27, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
Israeli and American pilots converse during the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise in Ovda Airfield near Eilat in southern Israel on October 27, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
Israeli and foreign fighter jets fly in formation through cloudy skies over the Negev desert during the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise at Ovda Airfield near Eilat on October 27, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
Israeli pilots, whose faces have been blurred for security reasons, walk over to their aircraft during the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise at Ovda Airfield near Eilat on October 26, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
A Greek F-16 fighter jet flies over Israel during the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise at Ovda Airfield near Eilat on October 21, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
A controller monitors the progress of the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise at Ovda Airfield near Eilat on October 27, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
Air traffic controllers monitor the aircraft taking part in the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise at Ovda Airfield near Eilat in southern Israel on October 27, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
An Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jet makes a landing onto a slightly flooded runway during the ‘Blue Flag’ exercise in southern Israel on October 26, 2015. (Israeli Air Force)
Post time 1-11-2015 03:28 AMFrom the mobile phone|Show all posts
mesmerize replied at 1-11-2015 03:22 AM
exercise latihan aje sis. tang mana katanya nak serang russia?
Akal ummah konspirasi teori mudah di baca, tiap tiap bulan pun dok ulang ww3 akan berlaku sehari dua lagi sejaj akak kecik sanpai la dah kertu sekarang, tak juga jadi nya.
Fuck ww3 dan penganut nya
jika enjin bermasalah, kapal terbang tu masih meluncur di udara..... tapi nie jatuh macam batu..... free fall
kalau bukan kena tembak, kena sedut dek graviti?
Mikael Robertsson, from the live flight tracking service Flight Radar 24, told the BBC that the plane started to drop very quickly, losing 1,500 metres in one minute before coverage was lost.
Sinai plane crash: 'No SOS call' before disaster 4 hours ago
From the section Middle East
One Egyptian official said the plane suddenly "disappeared off the radar"
A Russian aircraft did not lodge an SOS call before crashing in Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, Egypt's civil aviation minister says.
Initial reports from Egypt said the pilot of the Kogalymavia airline had asked to make an emergency landing.
But minister Hossam Kamal said there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight.
Lufthansa and Air France-KLM said they would avoid the route while the cause of the crash was investigated.
A claim by a group allied to the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Sinai that it brought down the plane has been dismissed by Russia and Egypt.
The Airbus A-321 came down early on Saturday, shortly after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Russian authorities say the plane was carrying 217 passengers, including 25 children. There were seven crew members on board.
Egyptian officials had said 214 of the passengers were Russian and four Ukrainian, but Russian officials said at least one of the victims was from Belarus.
On Saturday morning, Egyptian aviation official Ayman el-Mokadem, who the country's media say is heading an investigation into the crash, said flight KGL9268 had asked to land early because of a technical failure.
But Mr Kamal told a press conference this was not the case.
"Up until the crash happened, we were never informed of any faults in the plane, nor did we receive any SOS calls," he said.
All contact with air traffic control had been normal, and pre-flight checks showed no problems, he added.
Prime Minister Sharif Ismail (third from right) visited the site of the crash on Saturday afternoon
Map showing journey taken by flight KGL9268 before it crashed - 31 October 2015Image copyrightEPA
Egypt's civilian aviation ministry said the plane had been at an altitude of 9,450m (31,000ft) when it disappeared.
Security experts say a plane flying at that altitude would be beyond the range of a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile (Manpad), which Sinai militants are known to possess.
Wreckage was found in the Hasana area of Sinai and the plane's two black box recorders were removed, Mr Kamal said. One of the instruments logs cockpit recordings and the other registers flight data.
German carrier Lufthansa said it would avoid flying over the Sinai peninsula "as long as the cause for today's crash has not been clarified". On Saturday evening, Air France-KLM said it was following suit.
British Airways and easyJet said their routes were regularly reviewed, but that they had no plans to alter their routes to and from Sharm el-Sheikh.
Sinai has an active militant network, and on Saturday afternoon, jihadis allied to IS made a claim on social media that they brought down flight KGL9268.
Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov told Interfax news agency that "such reports cannot be considered true". No evidence had been seen that indicated the plane was targeted, he said.
This hotel near St Petersburg airport has become a gathering point for relatives of those on flight 9268. There are medics here to help them, and we saw an Orthodox priest. Some have been giving DNA samples, to try to identify their loved ones.
In the lobby, men from the investigative committee are huddled over files and phones - beside cabinets full of souvenirs. For some reason, riot police are patrolling the corridors too.
Occasionally, someone emerges red-eyed from the room where officials are passing on what information and answers they can to relatives. But it's still impossible to say why this happened.
A spokeswoman for the airline says the pilot was experienced, the Airbus plane had been through all its safety checks. But there are a lot of people here with urgent questions about why their friends and relatives are not safely home tonight after a holiday in the Egyptian sun.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared Sunday a day of mourning.
He has ordered an official investigation into the crash, and a commission headed by Mr Sokolov left for Egypt on Saturday afternoon.
The office of Egypt's prime minister said 129 bodies had so far been recovered and were taken to Cairo.
One un-named official described a "tragic scene" with bodies of victims still strapped to seats.
The plane appeared to have split in two, he told Reuters, with one part burning up and the other crashing into a rock.
Timeline: the course of flight KGL9268
05:58 Egyptian time (03:58 GMT): flight leaves Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian cabinet says in a statement
06:14 Egyptian time (04:14 GMT): plane fails to make scheduled contact with air traffic control based in Larnaca, Cyprus, according to Sergei Izdolsky, an official with Russia's air transport agency.
06:17 Egyptian time, approx (04:17 GMT): plane comes down over the Sinai peninsula, according to Airbus
11:12 Egyptian time (09:12 GMT): flight had been due to land in St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport
A criminal case had been opened against Kogalymavia for "violation of rules of flight and preparation for them", Russia's Ria news agency reported.
Oksana Golovin, a spokeswoman for the airline, said the company did not see any grounds to blame human error.
She told a press conference that the pilot had 12,000 hours of flying experience. Kogalymavia did not yet know what caused the crash, she said, but the plane was "fully, 100% airworthy".
Police have searched the company's offices.
Mikael Robertsson from flight tracking service Flight Radar 24: ''This was something more than a planned diversion''
Mikael Robertsson, from the live flight tracking service Flight Radar 24, told the BBC that the plane started to drop very quickly, losing 1,500 metres in one minute before coverage was lost.
senator john mccain didedah merancang airline attack sehari sebelum pesawat russia airbus 321 terhempas, didedahkan oleh wikileak ukraine, tetapi bukan di ruang udara mesir, yang dirancang ialah di ruang udara syria, pesawat amerika ditembak jatuh oleh russia di ruang udara syria, it's cool kan. saksikanlah transkrip perbualan mereka.
gbam replied at 1-11-2015 02:14 PM
susulan kejatuhan pesawat awam russia, kremlin mempertimbangkan nuclear stike on ISIS, sekarang teng ...
kalau begitu malaysia n belanda la baik hati (atau tak mampooo sebenarnya).. tiada pula nak balas dendam berbom nuklear segala meskipun pesawat penumpang mereka ditembak tanpa belas kasihan..
gbam replied at 1-11-2015 02:14 PM
susulan kejatuhan pesawat awam russia, kremlin mempertimbangkan nuclear stike on ISIS, sekarang teng ...
isis bukan sebuah negara kalau nak bom guna nuklear sekalipun..lepas bom beribu lagi datang berjuang atas nama jihad..lagi pun bukan senang senang sesebuah negara sewenang wenangnya guna nukear..sekali guna negara lain pun tuntut hak yang sama..last last jadi perang nuklear
Post time 1-11-2015 03:08 AM
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