Tri Lightning exercise

The one day Tri Lightning exercise was held on 29 June 2021 over the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. It was the second version of a series of trilateral exercises in which fifth generation fighter aircraft participated. The first one was Falcon Strike held early June 2021 at Amendola/Luigi Rovelli Air Base (Italy).

Tri Lightning is very similar to a series of exercises called Enduring Lightning which is a series of three bilateral exercise between the US and Israel. All of these exercises were held place in the southern region of Israel. See the Scramble Magazine news item of 14 October 2020.

This year's Tri Lightning exercise demonstrated the interoperability between the US, UK and Israel using the F-35B Lightning II (USMC VMFA-211 and RAF 617sq) and F-35I Adir (116sq and 140sq) respectively. The training scenario is different from its previous version in 2019, as it changed from focusing on defence to focusing on attack and training on offensive operations that included attacking high-value targets under the protection of modern air defence systems supported by Heyl Ha'Avir (IAF, Israeli Air Force) F-16C Barak Fighting Falcons.

The purpose of these Lightning exercises is to integrate the fifth-generation fighters located around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East using multiple scenarios to implement agreed plans and tactics in future war operations.