THROUGH THE LENS: NATO Tiger Meet 2017
Photos by Danny Reijnen
September 10, 2017
NATO Tiger Meet 2017 took place June 5-16, 2017 at BAN Landivisiau, France. Tiger Meet is a 53 year tradition that started as a way to get various air forces together from within NATO to discuss various issues and challenges the forces face. Tiger Meet has evolved through the years into an event that combines the traditional social event with combat training. According to the NATO Tiger Association, the typical 12 day program of Tiger Meet includes: “Well it all starts with the arrival of the participants, briefings, some flying (yes, even that first day) and an opening ceremony were all flags are raised till the last day. In the morning most participants fly local missions among each other (called Shadow Waves), while in the afternoon the COMAOs are flown. No need to say that all these missions are carefully planned, briefed, executed and debriefed. At some Meets the COMAOs are flown in the morning. This schedule is followed for most of the flying days. By the end of the first OPS week it is time to tighten social strengths between all participating units. It is during these days that the well-known Tiger Games are executed. Tiger Games are mainly a mix of fun and sports. After a second week of even more intense training missions), the Tiger Meet is always closed by lowering the flags, and on that last evening, the traditional farewell party is started and various awards are handed out, of which the Silver Tiger Trophy is the most important one.”
NATO Tiger Meet 2017 featured over 60 aircraft from 15 countries. Keeping with tradition, some of these aircraft were painted in elaborate “tiger themed” schemes.
Every year, the NATO Tiger Meet is held at various base in NATO countries. Next year, NATO Tiger Meet 2018 will take place at Poznan-Krzesiny AB, Poland, May 14-25, 2018.
Here we take a look at NATO Tiger Meet 2017, THROUGH THE LENS…
Click on an image below to page or swipe through the gallery:
Danny currently works for the Ministry of Defence at Schiphol Airport. His passion towards military aviation started when he was 7 years old. His dad took him to Volkel airbase. There he saw a lot of F-16s flying and he got hooked. He has been active in aviation photography since 1993.
When he first began, he was using an analog film camera. After awhile he got his first digital Konica Minolta 7D. After a couple of years the camera needed to be replaced and he bought a Sony A700. In 2015, he purchased a Sony A77 while continuing to use A700 as a secondary camera.
Despite of having a busy job, and being interested in taking photographs, Danny recently started to put his talent to use as a photojournalist in military aviation.
Danny can be reached at: [email protected]