NATO has held many military exercises since its establishment. Some of these exercises became a tradition and started to be held every year. Undoubtedly, Air Defender has the title of the biggest air exercise among them. The Turkish Air Force participated in the exercise, which was also held in 2023. Here are the Air Defender 2023 exercise and its details…
Air Defender 2023 exercise has come to an end!
TRTGermany hosted the Air Defender exercise, which has been held since the establishment of NATO, this year. 25 countries, including Turkey, participated in the exercise. In total, 250 aircraft and more than 10 thousand aviators took part in the exercise. The Turkish Air Force participated in the exercise with 3 F-16 aircraft.
Looking at other countries, the United States took the lead in the exercise with the highest number of points. A total of 110 planes took off from 35 different states of the USA and landed in Germany. 80 aircraft from NATO countries and 60 aircraft from other partner countries joined the team. The aircraft made more than 1200 sorties in total during the maneuvers.
MMU/ KAAN and ASELSAN systems inside
It has been announced that the name of MMU will be “KAAN”. So what are the ASELSAN systems in KAAN? Let’s take a closer look.
Not only warplanes served in the exercise. In addition to these, many elements such as transport planes, reconnaissance and surveillance planes, and helicopters took part. Looking at the participating fighter jets, fighter jets such as the 5th generation fighter jets F-35, F-18, F-16 stand out. Three F-16 fighter jets from the Turkish Air Force took their place in the exercise. It is aimed that HÜRJET and MMU KAAN will take their place in these exercises in the future.
Of course, in addition to the remarkable number of planes, jet fuel enough for so many planes should also be considered. In this context, a gigantic fuel tank was created in Wunstorf, the designated warehouse base in Germany. A total of 2.4 million liters of fuel was stored for warplanes in the warehouse, which consists of 8 tanks, each with a capacity of 300 thousand liters.
So what do you think about the Air Defender 2023 exercise organized by NATO? Don’t forget to give your opinion in the comments section…