NATO Tiger Meet 2015

Konya, Turkey

4 - 16 May 2015

The 51st NATO Tiger Meet, the almost annual gathering of NATO air forces squadrons featuring a tiger in their emblems, took place this year at the Turkish Air Force base near Konya. Universally, it had been expected to take place at the host unit's base of Balikeshir. However, the vast area surrounding Konya which was ideally suited to a flying exercise and the fact that Konya's ramp space is quite extensive led to the decision to stage the Meet here. 

Host unit was 192 Filo, part of 9 Ana Jet Us Komutanligi (Main Jet Base Command) of the Turkish Air Force (Turk Hava Kuvvetleri, THK). The images in this report were compiled on 7 and 8 may 2015.

Of course as the host nation, the THK did their best with Tiger paint schemes. A pair of F-16's, F-16C 92-0014 and F-16D two seater 88-0014 were sprayed in two different paint schemes. Another Tiger F-16 was Polish Air Force 4056 from 6 elt.

Never to be outdone, the French Air Force's EC 1/7  brought Rafale C 119/113-IX decorated in a green "Monster Tiger" scheme, while the Italian Air Force's 21° Gruppo showed a pair of Agusta AB.212ICO's.

As far as Tiger paint schemes, this sums up NTM 2015. Nevertheless, Konya provided an opportunity for some good photography of the participants and externals alike, although the accessible areas were slightly limited compared to Anatolian Eagle exercises.

Externals included a pair of AEW types, including a NATO E-3A Sentry as well as a Turkish Boeing 737-7ES AEW&C. Air refuelling services were provided by a Roayl Netherlands Air Force 334 sq Boeing KDC.10.