The first Arctic Challenge multinational exercise, involving more than sixty aircraft from five NATO partner nations, ran 16-26 September at Bodø Main AS, Norway. The exercise involved Norwegian F-16 Fighting Falcon, Swedish JAS-39 Gripen, Finnish F/A-18 Hornet, and Royal Air Force Typhoon pilots taking to the skies with US Air Force F-15C Eagle and F-15E Strike Eagle pilots and KC-135 Stratotanker crews to train in a combined environment. They incorporated both strategic planning and tactical war fighting simulations, practicing in-flight maneuvers and communication strategies with each other. Two NATO E-3A AWACS crews also joined in to provided aerial combat command for the dueling aircraft further simulating a combat scenario. The exercise concluded with a joint force mass scenario.
