Go Bold #56: Stories from the Cockpit: LtCol Tom Lawrence on the first ever RCAF participation in Exercise Cobra Warrior

This episode focuses on the the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) first ever participation in Exercise Cobra Warrior, a Royal Air Force (RAF) led Large Force Employment exercise.Cobra Warrior is hosted by the UK's Air & Space Warfare Centre which is located at RAF Waddington.The Exercise is held twice a year, and it takes place across the UK and over multiple domains including air, sea, land, space and cyber. We published a detailed overview of Exercise Cobra Warrior in Go Bold #48, so we encourage you to listen to that episode as a compendium to this episode where we are focused on Exercise Cobra Warrior 23-2.This iteration of Cobra Warrior involved more than 50 aircraft from 6 allied countries including: Canada, USA, Italy, Norway, Australia and the UK, along with a NATO E-3A Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) which managed large areas of battlespace and provide surveillance and communications. These aircraft worked together to support a fictional country in conflict to regain sovereign territory.According to a senior officer at the Air & Space Warfare Centre, the intent of Exercise Cobra Warrior was to bring allied forces together in order to enhance the ability to work collaboratively on demanding missions and in dynamic threat environments.Cobra Warrior 23-2 was the first time the exercise conducted operations at night, so that added an entirely new aspect to the operations.For its first ever participation at Cobra Warrior, the Royal Canadian Air Force dispatched an Air Task Force which included CF-18 Hornet fighter jets and the CC-150 Polaris air refueling tanker. RCAF C-17 strategic airlift aircraft also supported the deployment into Europe. Numerous other types of aircraft participated during the exercise, including the RAF’s F-35B Lightning which took part from the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. Also participating were RAF Typhoon fighter jets; F-35s from the United States and Norway, F-16s, Voyager MRTT air refueling tankers, HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters and many more.Our guest to speak about the Royal Canadian Air Force's participation is Lieutenant-Colonel Tom Lawrence, the Commanding Officer of 433 Tactical Fighter Squadron, and the Commander of the Air Task Force for Canada's participation in Cobra Warrior 23-2.We have a great discussion where we speak about leadership, fighter pilot training, the CF-18 Hornet, and combat operations, and then we dive into the happenings of Exercise Cobra Warrior 23-2. It's an awesome chat with a ton of great information, so we hope you'll enjoy this conversation.Our thanks to LtCol Lawrence for his time and insight.Go Bold!