Early February 2023 AR had the pleasure of spending a day outside Luke AFB Arizona, some 30 miles West of Phoenix. Flying was none stop from dawn to dusk and as per normal with Luke an abundance of F-35A Lightning II's. It is now nice to see the F-16s in "have glass" colour schemes with plenty of ordnance under the wings.

Flying with and against the F-35As were former French Air Force Mirage F-1CRs (ATAC) and former Israeli Air Force F-16As (Top Aces). The photo of the day was a fly-through of a VRC-30 US Navy C-2A Greyhound, this could well be one my last photos on the West Coast before the type is retired to the "Boneyard" in 2023.

So for the day we noted:

USAF F-35As

USAF F-16s

USAF C-17

USN C-2A

Royal Danish AF F-35Ss

Royal Netherlands AF F-35As

Royal Norwegian AF F-35S

Royal Singapore AF F-16s

Italian AF F-35s

Former French AF F-1s

Former IDF F-16s

All in all a cracking day in the warm winter Arizona sunshine, as per normal blue sky all day.

There are not many places in the United States you can see and photograph these many different Nations' aircraft on a regular basis in one day.

Report & photos by Mark Forest