Joint Warrior is a major , bi‐annually held , multinational exercise that involves numerous warships , aircraft , marines and troops , and it is the largest military exercise in Europe . Responsible for the organization for this vast exercise was the Joint Tactical Exercise Planning Staff ( JTEPS ) located in Faslan on Clyde , Scotland .
The exercise took place in the Scottish Exercise Areas . Most of the activities occurred offshore in the coastal waters to the north east and north west of Scotland . JW 16‐2 included air , sea and ground assets from NATO and partner countries , including Belgium , Canada , Estonia , Finland , France , Germany , Latvia , Lithuania , Netherlands , Norway , Portugal , Spain , the United Kingdom and the United States . The aircraft that involved in the exercise were based at RAF Leeming , which is in North Yorkshire , and at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland .
The exercise was designed to improve interoperability between NATO and allied forces and to provide the opportunity to train in a multinational , multiplatform , and a multi‐warfare environment .
Many of the Typhoons and all of the Tornados based in Lossie , were not involved in the exercise . The RAF had several units deployed to Asia and the United States , so there were a reduced fleet of aircraft available for the standard missions and training flights and only a few Typhoons participated in JW 16‐2 . Most of the workload of the fast jets operations were been done by the Swedish AF . For aircraft enthusiasts JW 16‐2 offered a good opportunity to take some images of the Grippen ’ s and the Portuguese F‐16 ’ s .
The end of the line countdown for the Tornados at Lossie has been started . XV Squadron will be disbanded next year in April and all of the remaining Tornados will be moved to Marham , where all Tornados from the RAF will be stationed . together . Also a rare visitor at Lossie for this exercise was the Royal Navy Sea King ASaC7 .