Royal Air Force F-16 "MiG killer" (J-063).
This F-16 with registration J-063 of 322 squadron fired an AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile) missile at a Serbian MiG-29 fighter aircraft. On the night of 24 March 1999, the first air strike of Operation 'Allied Force' (against the former Yugoslavia) took place. A formation of 4 F-16s had to protect coalition aircraft over enemy territory. In the area were 3 Serbian MiG-29s. One of the F-16 pilots flew towards a suspected enemy radar contact, but as the contact had not yet been identified as enemy, he was not allowed to do anything. He turned away from the radar contact and handed over the attack and tactical command to pilot Peter Tankink. In the meantime, the radar contact was identified as an enemy MiG-29 after which Tankink successfully took out the aircraft.
This photo was taken 27 March 2017 during exercise Frisian Flag at Leeuwarden Air Base.
I am Jaap van den Berg and photography has become a great passion of mine since 2010. Since then I travel all over the world to take pictures of military aircrafts. But besides aircraft I also love to photograph other subjects like landscapes, architecture, flowers, animals, .. Read more…