Military Jets Photography: 2014 05 20 and 23 ILA Berlin

ILA (Internationale Luftfahrtausstellung) is the German national aerospace trade show, which is held bi-annually at Berlin - Schönefeld. It has been struggling to find its place in competition with other traditional and larger trade shows, in particular Le Bourget and Farnborough, as well as with shows emerging more recently like Dubai, Singapore and others.
Despite the less than ideal photo conditions, a particularly attractive range of military participants from various air forces made ILA 2014 an interesting event for the military aircraft enthusiast.
ILA has traditionally been one of the rare events, where the German armed forces not only show their whole range of assets in static display but also give a demonstration of their combined operational capability. The name of this year’s demo was Willfire 2014 and it combined a total of four Tornados, two EF2000s, two Tigers and a single Lynx, CH-53, Transall and A310. A civil-registered PC-9 was used to simulate a target for interception after airspace violation. The Willfire demo was nice to look at, but photography was difficult. All aircraft participating in Willfire, with the exception of the helicopters, operated from their home bases.
For each ILA a partner county is selected. This year it was Turkey, resulting in a number of attractive Turkish military aircraft participating. Two F-4E-2020s from 111 Filo, one with a special colour scheme, a B737AEW&C from 131 Filo, a T-129A ATAK, and the SoloTürk display team including Transall support aircraft.
Traditionally, US armed forces have always sent attractive participants to ILA, in the past including the F-117A, B-1 and B-52. This year, in the light of severe budget constraints, the large presence by the USAF and US Army was particularly welcome. After, initially, a pair of MV-22’s had been announced, these were replaced by a single A-10 from a detachment of the Indiana ANG to Spangdahlem. Other rather rare show participants were an AH-64D, a UH-72A and a UH-60A.
Other military participants with multiple aircraft were the Polish and Czech air forces. The Polish contributed their MiG-29 to the flight displays and the Czech added the Mi-171Sh and Mi-24V. It was the first time I saw the Czech display by two Mi-171Sh helicopters.
The presence of two A400M aircraft, one prototype and the production aircraft N°11 with flight test number EC-401 in Armée de l'Air livery, was an indication of the production gaining pace. The first example for the Luftwaffe is due before year end.
Finally, other more regular ILA participants were also present including the RAF with two Tornados and a Hawk T.2 and the Armée de l'Air with the Rafale C.