The exercise was designed to provide training opportunities for combat ready aircrews to increase proficiency and exchange experiences with allied and partner nations. The airspace east of Konya, above the Anatolian Plateau, is perfectly suited for the execution of air operations such as Composite Air Operations, Dynamic Targeting, Close Air Support, Anti Surface Warfare, Air to Air refuelling and more.
Anatolian Eagle gave the NATO AWACS crew an opportunity to work with Allies and Partner nations to increase interoperability to meet any challenge facing the alliance. Live training exercises like this are crucial to success as a unit and let the crew train as they fight.
A Turkish F-16 participates in exercise Anatolian Eagle from 21 June to 2 July. Units from the Turkish Air Force and Navy, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Qatar Emiri Air Force and the NATO E-3A AWACS participated in the exercise designed to provide training opportunities for combat ready aircrews to increase proficiency and exchange experiences with allied and partner nations. Photo by Giovanni Colla.
The E-3A Component is deploying one detachment of 42 personnel from the Operations, Logistics and Support Wings to support the tactical planning and execution of all Anatolian Eagle missions. On a daily basis, the E-3A will provide battle management and tactical command and control to as much as 30 aircraft executing the different tactical scenario's presented to the participants by a dedicated white cell.
During these missions, the participants will face different threats provided by a Turkish aggressor squadron and several Ground Based Air Defence systems.