They Belgians will also send 5 F-16s to Azraq air base in Jordan where the pilots will participate from May 14th until June 1st in exercise "Falcon Air Meet 2007".

The concept of that exercise is a friendly competition centred on the world's only multi-role fighter jet, the F-16 Fighting Falcon. It was inspired by Prince Feisal Bin Al Hussein, special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Jordanian Armed Forces, and first organised in 2006. The goal of this F-16 competition is the improvement of the relationship of Jordan with its partners and the promotion of the stability in the region.

"The idea was to get all the F-16 users in the region to exercise and hopefully learn from each other and exchange information," Prince Feisal said. "The nice thing about making it a competition is that you get the best of the teams together and with the smartest and brightest people working together they tend to learn from one another. The idea eventually will be to make this more of a coalition exercise."

Prince Feisal's vision became reality when the 522nd Fighter Squadron from Cannon AFB, the Turkish Air Force and the Royal Jordanian Air Force competed in Falcon Air Meet 2006.

Last year, the U.S. Air Force (522FS - Cannon AFB), the Turkish Air Force and the Royal Jordanian Air Force competed in the event. Along with those 2006 competitors there were several observing countries such as Bahrain, Italy, Oman, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia which are now also planning to participate to the exercise.

The first official day of last years' air meet was the scramble competition in which each country launched two aircraft under timed conditions. Each aircraft had two crew chiefs and a pilot. Teams were timed and graded on speed and accuracy of a successful and rapid launch.

The second event was the bombing competition where each country launched four aircraft on a bombing run of the royal Jordanian air force’s bombing range. The bombing competition was followed by the formation flying event and the large force employment competition. Each country was tasked and graded on their successful and rapid deployment of four aircraft per country. While in the air during
these events, pilots engaged in mock combat maneuvers.

An F-16 Fighting Falcon lands May 20 after performing a training mission of basic fighter maneuvers during the 2007 Falcon Air Meet in Azraq, Jordan. The event was founded by Jordan's Royal Highness Prince Feisal Bin Al Hussein to get F-16 users in the region to exercise and exchange information. Air forces from Jordan, Turkey, Belgium and the United States participated in the 2007 FAM. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Wolfram Stumpf)

Turkish F-16s Achieve Best Times In Falcon Air Meet 2007 Military Exercise
Published: 5/30/2007

ANKARA - Turkish Air Forces participated in the international "Falcon Air Meet-2007" military exercises with five F-16s and 49 military staff, it was reported on Tuesday.

[...]

Turkish Air Forces said in a statement that Turkish F-16s achieved best times among other countries in several competitions.

USA, Belgium, Jordan and Turkey are the participant countries of the exercise. Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Italy, Kuwait, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Oman are the observer countries.

Source: http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=178745

I can only hope they hold one somewhere besides Azraq...such a nice place.

The following picture was released on USAF's public main website as part of the "May 25 airpower summary", related to OIF and OEF.



<a href="http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/070520-F-3303S-140.jpg">hi-res</a>

Original photo caption: