Hungarian Gripens at NATO’s largest-scale air exercise

Exercise Ramstein Flag 2025 is one of NATO’s most significant air exercises, which is being held in the northern region of the Alliance to develop the skills essential for executing distributed operations across NATO.

According to the MoD press release, during the two-week event, pilots are flying missions based on various complex combat scenarios to carry out several tasks, among them advanced air combat training, Counter Anti-Access/Area Denial (C-A2/AD) and integrated operations conducted with the air and land forces of other nations.

Besides the Hungarian Defence Forces, more than 15 NATO member states are participating in the exercise, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark.

During this year’s exercise, Hungary’s tactical fighter aircraft are cooperating with fifth-generation, F-35 stealth fighter jets, and the aircraft of the HDF 101st Aviation Wing will also be practicing complex offensive and defensive counterair operations in a lifelike multinational environment, per the MoD press release.

The press release states that the Hungarian air force has already demonstrated its preparedness on several occasions at the international level, and that by enabling the acquisition of the latest tactics, techniques and procedures, Exercise Ramstein Flag 2025 constitutes another important step in maintaining and developing the combat readiness of pilots, fighter jets and their crews.

According to the press release, the Hungarian Defence Forces consider Exercise Ramstein Flag 2025 to be more than just a military drill, as it is also an event of strategic importance, which contributes to increasing regional security and strengthening allied bonds.