A major air exercise concludes today in the United Kingdom. ‘Exercise Cobra Warrior’ has ranged over a two and a half week period since the 4th of September. In that time areas in Wales, Scotland and over the Irish Sea have borne the brunt of the exercise traffic.
The UK says these exercises are vital for its Defence especially in times of heightened tension. However what is interesting is that in addition to NATO partners this exercise also hosted aircrew from India, South Africa and Singapore. It begs the question why these countries can not find exercise ‘playgrounds’ closer to home.
As indicated these exercises involving aircraft flying at very low altitudes can cause complaints from folk in rural areas affected. However what is interesting is that this time complaints were also aired in urban areas of the North West of England mainstream media and Facebook for example quoted residents on Merseyside and the Wirral alarmed by the exercise.
Certain UK urban areas (and the Isle of Man) see map are designated Flight Avoidance Areas (FLAs) or ‘’regulated airspace’ so it seems that the RAF and there other ‘chums’ strayed of course a bit.
As indicated (see map again red coloured areas) Wales, SW Scotland and the Highlands bear the brunt of this low flying although this time I note N Ireland (area 10) was also designated.
Although there have been crashers in the past the good news is this exercise appears to have passed without incident. The bad news is another one will be held in six months!
Image: UK LFAs
Bernard Moffatt
Celtic League Military Monitoring (23rd September 2023)
