Hungarian Gripens in International Formation – Tiger Meet 2014

The exercise of “tigers" is all about flying in large formations (Composite Air Operation, COMAO), which the Gripens has no opportunity to practice in Hungary in any sense (in the absence of sufficient equipment and large enough airspace).

Maj. Sándor Kálló, the commander of the Puma Squadron told us that the morning sorties include such COMAO training missions in every case.

“Usually 40 aircraft fight against 10. On the first day, we were assigned the role of the “enemy force (Red Force)", but on the second day we flew a mission as part of the “Blue Force". We are practicing air-to-air and air-to-ground scenarios – for example, yesterday’s program included an imitated bombing (Close Air Support, CAS) mission. Although we’re just into an early phase of the exercise, I can say that so far we have performed well. We haven’t had to cancel any take-offs, and haven’t had any technical problems either."

The major added that in the afternoon waves, the Gripens fly in small formations to conduct Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DCAT) against various fighter types. He noted that in Hungary, they can imitate at most four-on-four air combat scenarios, and that is how they had prepared for the Tiger Meet apart from the simulator training in Sweden.

Maj. Sándor Kálló also told us that altogether 2,000 participants had registered for the “Spottersdays" of the exercise. The photographers interested in fighters can take photos of the “flying tigers", so to say, in a spotter area next to the tower.

“Many teams have painted aircraft, and during the exercise, there will be a photo-flying session where these special painted aircraft will fly for the sake of the best possible photographs", the squadron commander added.

Needless to say, no fighters can operate without adequate technical support. In answering our question, Maj. Sándor Ádány, the duty supervisor engineer of the AVUM Squadron told us that they were preparing for the exercise by having carried out in advance the major overhauls and checking on the Gripens to be flown to Germany.

“In fact, we are doing the same type of work as we do at home, it’s just that we’re far from our home station." Here in Germany, we are performing only small checks, and repair potential minor faults", the duty supervisor engineer said.

During the exercise, the experience of “tiger spirit" is at least as important as the tasks just mentioned, because apart from the Tigers, there are Panthers and Hungarian Pumas participating in the event.

Besides work, the organizers take care of recreation too. To make sure that the nations learn more about each other’s culture, they organized an International Night, where every nation introduced its characteristic food and drinks. The Hungarian stand was very popular. Brig.-Gen. Albert Sáfár, the Chief of the Hungarian Air Force also visited and praised the work of the Hungarian team, which had prepared a bean goulash.