Greater than three dozen fighter pilots from nine NATO countries convened last week at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to face off against one another in a first-of-its-kind, U.S.-led exercise to sharpen air-to-air combat skills and coordination between allies.
“Ramstein 1v1″ pitted pilots from the U.S., United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France and Germany, against one another in a daylong competition of basic fighter maneuvers, or “dogfighting,” by which rapid decisions and sharp response to an adversary can mean life or death. It featured a mishmash of aircraft, including F-35A Lightning IIs, F-16 Fighting Falcons, Eurofighter Typhoons, French Rafales, F/A-18 Hornets and A-4 Skyhawks.
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The exercise was a primary for U.S. Air Forces in Europe, and turned Ramstein, a military airlift hub, right into a fighter base for a day.
“Basic fighter maneuvering … is a foundational skill set for fighter pilots,” Lt. Col. Michael Loringer, USAFE’s chief of weapons and tactics, said in a press release. “It tests a pilot’s response time, physical stamina and situational awareness. … There isn’t any higher method to construct trust in a pilot’s aircraft or a pilot’s skills than to have interaction” one-on-one.
The event comes as Russia gains ground in Ukraine within the third yr of the war on NATO’s doorstep. The U.S. military and its allies have turned their attention to bolstering aerial combat skills as they prepare for the likelihood that tensions with Russia and China might spill into armed conflict, pitting advanced air forces against one another for the primary time in many years.
As a part of that prep work, the Air Force last September brought back its famed “William Tell” aerial shooter competition after sidelining it for nearly twenty years due to high operations tempo within the Middle East. Air Combat Command told Air Force Times Tuesday that a 2025 William Tell competition is tentatively within the works, though a date has not yet been set.
USAFE Commander Gen. James Hecker said last yr that NATO pilots can even put freshly honed offensive and defensive maneuvers to the test at a significant recent training exercise, Ramstein Flag, in Greece at the tip of 2024.
“We don’t wish to go to war with Russia, and I don’t think they wish to go to war with us either,” he told Air Force Times last July. “But we want to make certain that we’ve the forces able to deterring them, in order that nothing bad will occur.”
During last week’s exercise, U.S. airmen from RAF Lakenheath, England, pitched in to service the Royal Norwegian Air Force’s F-35s. The 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein handled installation support and flight line operations.
The exercise focused on readiness and constructing trust, with some friendly competition in-built. After a day of flying, a piano was burned in memory of fighter pilots killed in motion — a World War II tradition that lives on.
“We usually are not just NATO allies, but a community sure by real friendship and respect,” Loringer said. “I emphasize this point because successful military operations require exceptional teamwork, often critical to survival. And as a pilot, it boils right down to trust. It’s crucial to trust your wingman.”
Courtney Mabeus-Brown is the senior reporter at Air Force Times. She is an award-winning journalist who previously covered the military for Navy Times and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., where she first set foot on an aircraft carrier. Her work has also appeared in The Recent York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy and more.