During August 2022, China’s Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) conducted a joint exercise in the northern part of Thailand called Falcon Strike 2022. Paul Filmer supplies images for this piece.
Falcon Strike took place over 10 days at Udon Thani Air Base in the north of the country. Command and Control aircraft taking part were a single PLAAF Shaanxi KJ-500 and a single RTAF SAAB SF-340AEW of 702 Air Control Squadron based at Surat Thani, in the south of the country.
Other RTAF aircraft taking part were SAAB JAS39C/D Gripens of 701 Fighter Squadron, also based at Surat Thani, plus Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet As of 231 Attack Squadron at Udon Thani.
All the PLAAF aircraft were flown by the 131 Brigade out of Luliang Air Base in Yunnan Province, and included Chengdu J-10C/Hs alongside Xi’an JH-7As.