Polish F-16s at Mildenhall

[canberraman]

Rare visitors at Mildenhall today were no less than 10 F-16C/Ds from Polish Air Force 6 ELT. In arrival order they consisted of 4055, 4060, 4059, 4083, 4061, 4043, 4054, 4077, 4078, 4081. All had the nonconformal fuel tanks fitted. The aircraft were completing the first leg of their journey from Poznan/Krzesiny in Poland to Nellis AFB Nevada where they are to compete in the next Red Flag exercise. They also brought with them a C295 and C-130 in support along with a pair of USAF KC-10s for AAR. Rather unluckily for the several hunderd photographers assembled on the Mound, the sun stubbornly refused to appear as each jet landed. Typical! Hopefully it might be out if/when the aircraft return via the UK at the end of the exercise in a few weeks time.

Thanks for looking.

Mark

[AndyC]

Lucky spot! Nice pics too!

[RNoAF Aerobatic Team]

Nice one!

Not often you see those...

[General Jumbo]

I need to get up to date - I didn't even know Poland had F-16s!

[gary1701]

Rather unluckily for the several hunderd photographers assembled on the Mound, the sun stubbornly refused to appear as each jet landed. Typical!

Hi. Tell me about it! I was one of the extremely annoyed photographers on the mound as well. You wouldn't believe that every jet from three separate flights spaced 10/15 minutes apart would fail to find a decent sized gap today. At least it's only a 45 minute run for me, not like some of the poor buggers there today. Going through the pics, I was a little suprised to find one further down the runway with a little light on and at a decent angle. I'll add it here if okay as it seems pointless starting another thread for one image...

Oh forgot. The local rumour is for departure tomorrow morning sometime around or after 10AM, as they have a airspace reservation later on. Might be worth a look (I can't) but difficult to photograph fast jet departures on 29 at Mildenhall at that time of day. There seems to be some debate as to where these guys are actually going, as the next Red Flag at Nellis isn't for over two months. Maybe Canada (Maple Flag?) or Alaska perhaps?

Edit: Maple Flag at Cold Lake starts on 28th May. That fits in with routing North as well.

Gary

Edited May 16, 2012 by gary1701

[charley420]

I bet thats a lonely flight sat in their on your own all that way

[F-32]

Nice shots chaps

[phildagreek]

Good shots, thanks for putting them up.

[AndyC]

I bet thats a lonely flight sat in their on your own all that way

Poznan (or wherever) to Mildenhall is probably not too bad but Mildenhall to Nellis...

[jimbuna]

Lovely shots...thanks for sharing.

[c.smith10]

I caught 6 of the Polish F-16's leaving today, my shots are not great but light was crap and i was the rong end of the base to e honest oh and my lens isnt all that!! but here is what i did get

[ursa_major]

6 of the 10 failed to depart UK airspace today due to a tech tanker. Rumour is that they'll be trying again at the same sort of time tomorrow. I'm not sure whether all 6 will depart as I seem to recall that a KC-10 can only support a flight of 4 F-16s. That would tie in with the initial heads-up I got of the movement being for 8 jets going west - perhaps 2 of the remaining 6 are air-spares and will turn back at the UK FIR boundary and stage through Mildenhall before returning to Poland?

Edited May 17, 2012 by ursa_major

[c.smith10]

So what happened to the 6 that took off yesterday? Did they turn back?

[gary1701]

Hi,

On the 17th, they launched six with two acting as spares that returned, the others getting away okay with the single serviceable KC-10. Yesterday (18th) they replaced the still broke KC-10 with two 100th ARW KC-135's and the remaining six also departed with two again acting as spares. All eight are now away but I don't know if the two spares returned to Mildenhall or went straight back to Poland. I gather the plan on the first day, was for all eight to go across and the spares to route directly home.

Also finally found out for certain where they went, it was never going to be Nellis but wasn't Cold Lake either. It was Red Flag Alaska, which is usually held at Eielson AFB. They're due back sometime in June, don't know if that means another stopover at Mildenhall.

Gary