More than 6,000 air force soldiers, ground troops, from command and guidance centres and reconnaissance took part in the exercises "Fearless Eagle 25". The operations carried out included, among others, interception of aircraft violating airspace, fighter fighting, and the usage of civilian airport infrastructure for tactical purposes.
The “Fearless Eagle ‘25” was part of the Federation of exercises “Iron Defender’25” – the largest and most crucial training task of the Polish Armed Forces in 2025. The Sky episode, which lasted from 18 to 26 September, was a test for the Air Operations Centre – Air Component Command and a number of units that had a full of nearly 200 air operations utilizing respective twelve aircraft from home and abroad. National missions of tactical, transport, reconnaissance and unmanned aviation were supported by NATO forces stationed in Poland and in the Baltic States.
– The aim of the exercise was to improve consequence skills in possible emergency situations, to interact with subdivisions and to exchange experience. It should be stressed that all actions were defensive – says Major Iwona Grześkowiak, press officer of the 33rd Transport Aviation Base in Powidz.
Soldiers from the visible base as part of these episodes utilized aircraft C-130 Hercules and M-28 Bryza. Before the flight they downloaded the process of planning air transport in hazardous areas and preparing the aircraft and crew for take-off. In addition, with the support of the soldiers of the 6th Air Force Chemical Battalion from Śrem, they implemented the decontamination script M-28 along with the crew. – Exercisers have checked their consequence skills in the event of a possible threat of an air attack, contamination or diversion to military facilities. They besides verified the strategy of protection and defence of military facilities and improved the planning processes of the tasks received, as well as their execution, as described by Major Grześkowiak.
"The Fearless Eagle '25' was besides an intense time for the 2nd Tactical Aviation Wing, including for pilots and ground personnel of 32th Tactical Aviation Base in Łask and 31st Tactical Aviation Base in Poznań-Krzesiny. “Our main task was to combat, safe and capture air raid measures during simulated airspace violations,” said Colonel Pil. Łukasz Gradziński, commander of the Air Force Group 31BLT.
Polish F-16s conducted defensive air combat with the participation of Dutch F-35s. – An crucial part of the exercise was the planning and implementation of the transport of our aircraft to Portugal, where they proceed their tasks as part of the National Tiger Meet training. In addition, we carried out an F-16 transport to the airport of the maneuver, for which we utilized civilian airports – an officer reports. In this respect, cross-servicing was trained, i.e. the fast preparation of F-16 for another take-off with limited ground handling at non-parent airports.
All exercises under the Iron Defender ‘25’ were carried out by land troops, air force, navy, peculiar troops and territorial defence troops. 30 1000 soldiers and 600 units of equipment of the Polish Army and NATO Allied States participated. The main intent of the manoeuvres was to check the interoperability and capabilities of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland to conduct defence activities in a multi-domain environment.
