RNAS Yeovilton International Air Day Press Release
We are delighted to announce that The Royal Saudi Air Force’s Saudi Hawks’ Display Team will be making their debut display at Air Day 2012, their second ever in this country. Equipped with six BAE Hawk Mk65s, this highly exotic international display team will begin a short UK goodwill tour commencing at RNAS Yeovilton, performing here in company with the RAF Red Arrows.
Like the Red Arrows, the Saudi Hawks use one of the world’s best advanced jet trainers. First flown in 1974, the Hawk has since become a major UK defence export success story and, since forming in 1998, the Saudi Hawks have achieved their own considerable success. Their highly accomplished routine mixes formation loops and rolls with dynamic passes and, in the right weather conditions, includes a record-setting vertical palm tree split manoeuvre. As the Royal Saudi Air Force’s official aerobatic team, the Saudi Hawks are painted in the national colours of green and white and their figures are accented by thick smoke trails.
BAE Hawks will be much in evidence at Air Day 2012: besides those of the Saudi Hawks and the Red Arrows, it’s also planned for examples operated by FRADU to participate. Based at RNAS Culdrose, the FRADU (Fleet Requirements and Air Direction Unit) Hawks are tasked with carrying out simulation and training sorties for the Royal Navy and, as in previous years, it’s expected there’ll be examples involved in the show-closing Commando Assault
RAF Waddington International Airshow Press Release
RAF Waddington’s International Airshow has welcomed the news that another nation will make their debut at the 2012 show. It will be the first time that the Royal Saudi Air Force has been represented at Waddington International Airshow, and what better way to make an entrance than with their national display team, the Saudi Hawks.
The Saudi Hawks, flying 6 BAe Hawk jets, painted in green and white the national colours of Saudi Arabia, were formed in 1998 to represent the Saudi nation and act as ambassadors across the world. The Team, who are based at King Faisal Air Base Tabuk, completed their first public display in 1999, over the capital city of Riyadh, which marked the 100th Anniversary of the nation of Saudi Arabia. Since then the team have gone from strength to strength, completing tours across the Middle East and Europe, appearing in the UK for the first time last year.
Their 2012 visit to the UK will see them display at the Royal Navy’s airshow at Yeovilton, before flying into Waddington for the weekend. The team’s Airshow Advisor, is no stranger to the Lincolnshire skies, Sqn Ldr Simon Rea is a serving RAF officer, who left the Red Arrows to take up an exchange position with the Saudi team. The arrival of the Saudi Hawks at Waddington will make the nation of Saudi Arabia the 33rd nation to take part in the air show since it began.
