NATO Exercise at RAF Kinloss

[tigershark]

NATO Exercise at RAF Kinloss - Thursday 10 January 2008
Fast jets from the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy will be flying in and out of RAF Kinloss from 14 January to 8 February to take part in a NATO Tactical Leadership Programme exercise.

Approximately 18 aircraft will take part, comprising of F16s, Mirage F1s, Mirage 2000s, Super Entendards and Tornados from the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy. In addition there will be around 11 other aircraft and helicopters from the UK, France and Italy to provide support on some of the missions. Whilst the aircraft will operate from RAF Kinloss the majority of the overland flying activity will take place in northern Scotland, the Borders and northern England.

The flying programme is limited to only a few hours a day and night flying is planned for just one week - 21-25 January and all aircraft should be on the ground by 2200 hrs. Apart from some arrivals and departures aircraft should not fly at weekends.

Full story
http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/index.cfm?storyid=639A627E-1143-EC82-2EA085FD99B1111B

[lazyweasel]

It's nice to see the TLP in Scotland. Kinloss isn't the best base for photography - I wish it was being held at Lossiemouth instead but it's certainly easier for me to get to compared to Florennes!!

[tigershark]

Should be a great show wish I were able to see it that's for sure.   I notice Mirage F1's and wondered if they have a high operational cost for an older type?   Say a country were to have 20 Mirage 2000-5s or even Rafale's but didn't want to use either for ground attack or COIN operation would Mirage F1s be an answer?   I don't know a lot about French aircraft operational cost really.   This poster in a different forum mentioned that Chile's Mirage 50s are costly and that for one hour of flight time Chile's AF can run 5 A-37 or 2- F-16s.  I wanted to know if Mirage F1 fell into that group do French engines eat fuel like that?