NATO days in Ostrava & Czech air force days

The websites have constituted an irreplace pillar of our communication with visitors and fans of NATO Days in Ostrava & Czech Air Force Days in recent years. We prepare the event and the websites for you, and therofere we welcome your remarks and comments to the current beta-version, so that we can tune up the alfa version.

Launching of the new websites design is a good opportunity to remind the progressive development of the websites and also the development of the event itself. We have tried to pick the paramount events from each year, which we have supplemented with other information such as programmes of the event when it was possible. We wish you pleasant holiday reading! 

Jagello 2000

Three stages of the websites development - in 2005, the "old one" in 2012 and the "new one" in 2012

NATO Days in Ostrava 2001

The first year took place in Fridays afternoon - "after shift" - at Černá louka fair ground in Ostrava centre. The visitors could see special military and rescue equipment, equipment and armament of special and reconnaissance unit, training and equipment of the police, displays of an anti-terrorist commando, search for drugs and weapons, of firemen and rescuers and many more interesting presentations. 

Also the elite paratroopers fro Bialsko-Biala have presented themselves and Poland became the historically first foreign country, which took part in NATO Days in Ostrava.

NATO Day in Ostrava 2002

The second year, which took place at Černá louka again, saw participation of the first NATO non-member country at that time – Slovakia, which supported its pending invitation to join NATO at Prague Summit by means of its active participation at the event. Slovakia sent its most elite fighting force – 7th Special Airborne Regiment from Žilina, which has introduced itself only once in the Czech Republic – and for the last time till today.

NATO Day in Ostrava 2003

Since the third year the event has been held regularly in mid-September at Leoš Janáček Ostrava Airport, setting of which enables to conduct more attractive dynamic and especially flying displays. Special forces of the Prison Service and General Customs Directorate of the Customs Administration of the Czech Republic have joined regular participants of the event, which significantly widened the scale of civil services and integrated rescue system components. The absolute highlight of the programme was a Mi-24 helicopter flying display.

A third foreign participant joined the event – the United Kingdom with presentation of a British training team BMATT from Vyškov and it has been taking part every year since NATO Day in Ostrava 2003.

NATO Day in Ostrava 2004

In the framework of the fourth year it was for the first time Czech spectators were able to board the legendary E-3A Sentry “AWACS” early warning aircraft from NATO base in German Geilenkirchen. Another opportunity for the visitors was a presentation of all the equipment of a field hospital or of training of the world-renowned chemical protection unit from Liberec.

NATO Day in Ostrava 2005

The fifth year saw the first foreign air force participation by the Royal Air Force. Two of its Tornado F3 supersonic jets from base in Scottish Leuchars were supposed to present themselves only at static display; however one of them was eventually instrumental in creating an unplanned final highlight of the programme. The characteristic sound of 111th RAF Squadron’s Tornados F3s was a natural part of our show till 2010.

Among other highlights of the fifth year was a Joint Forces of the Czech Army display of three T-72M4CZ tanks, three BVP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, an engineering tank and Mi-17 and W-3A Sokol helicopters. A legendary Věra passive radar system had its public premiere at the event, before which it was known only from media.

Special forces of the Customs Administration have presented a fascinating display of intervention against a tank carrying refugees across state borders, in which the used vehicle actually originally belonged to smugglers, from whom it was confiscated.

An important part of the event was the finals of the European Championship in fire sport of firemen and rescuers.

Also, since 2005 the event has its own separate websites, which have been running slightly updates till 2012.

NATO Day in Ostrava 2006

The sixth year was significant with the largest participation of the British Royal Air Force in the Czech history. The RAF sent 21 aircrafts of many types to Mošnov airfield. There was a legend, which said that at a RAF command meeting in Whitehall, London a question was asked: “In which foreign places are our aircrafts this week?” The answer was: “In Afghanistan, in Iraq and in Ostrava.”

A performance of the world-renowned aerobatics team reaped the largest applause together with a flying display of the British version of E-3D AWACS aircraft.

For the first time, the U. S. Air Force took part in the event, with two F-15C Eagle and two F-15E Strike Eagle supersonic jets, which have never met again since then at our event.

A great reaction from the public met a hour-long simulation of real fighting situation by the Czech Army, which presented even unusual equipment like Pegas 4M hovercraft.

NATO Day in Ostrava 2007

The seventh year served as a meeting place for three most modern airplanes in Europe – British Typhoon F2, Czech Jas-39 Gripen and Polish F-16C Block 52+. In case of the British Typhoon F2 it was its first landing in Central and Eastern Europe. General Zdeněk Škarvada, direct participant of aerial combat in the WW2, personally welcomed the Typhoon at Mošnov airfield.

Applause of the visitors was reaped especially by American Viper East Demo Team with F-16CJ Fighting Falcon and by Spanish F-18 Hornet. There also was an unforgettable display of piloting skills of G-17 Globemaster III, which also introduced itself at a static display. It was with the Globemaster III aircraft that the era of “large static displays” started, which has continued until today.

Another worldwide unique display was presented by the Military Historical Institute Prague, which introduced Israeli Merkava Mk. I main battle tank – the only one outside Israel. The first public premiere of special intervention units from Ostrava and Katowice took place at the event with display of saving hostages from an airplane.

NATO Days in Ostrava 2008

In 2008 we experienced for the first – and fortunately for the last – time, what it means to cope with bad weather. Especially flying display actors had to cope with low temperature, rain and low cloud cover. And in spite the morning forecast that said even helicopters couldn’t fly, around 11 o’clock the sky miraculously opened and the flying programme could start, including performances of Spanish Patrulla Águila aerobatics team, the first performance of Dutch F-16 Demo Team at our event (who would have thought that we will see this team in following years again) and of RAF Hawk Demo team. At static display the visitors could for the first time in the Czech Republic compare two versions of AWACS aircraft – NATO’s E-3A and British E-3D.

But the main pull of the eight year was a renewed public premiere of An-124 Ruslan heavy transport aircraft, which introduced itself to the general public at Mošnov airport after 20 long years.

NATO Days in Ostrava 2009

The ninth year was in sign of huge organizational changes. Firstly, the exhibition area was moved to a different part of the airport and secondly, the programme was extended to whole weekend. Its highlights were performances of British Typhoon Display Team, the first in Central Europe, or dynamic display of Polish Rosomak armoured transporter on the ground together with joint simulated intervention of Czech and Slovak special forces of customs administrations.

Its Central European premiere for the public had the largest serially produced aircraft in the world – C-5 Galaxy from USAF. This year the event marked the highest number of premiere participating countries, which was matched in 2011, but not yet exceeded.

Thanks to lengthening the programme to the whole weekend, also the one hundred thousand visitors mark was exceeded for the Weekend show – there were 135,000 visitors during the weekend.

NATO Days in Ostrava & Czech Air Force Days 2010

The tenth year of NATO Days in Ostrava became the first year of Czech Air Force Days thanks to General Jiří Verner and his decision. This connection helped with raising the international prestige and importance of the event. This year saw the Central European premiere of an American B-52H Stratofortress strategic bomber. On the other hand, the event served as a last performance for two British RAF aircrafts. Its last performance had Tornado F.3 fighter, which presented an attractive display with WW2 veteran Hurricane Mk.I aircraft. However unplanned last performance for the Czech public had the Harrier GR.9, which became a victim of budget cuts in British defence budget.

NATO Days in Ostrava & Czech Air Force Days 2011

The main pulls were definitely Turkish Stars aerobatics team flying NF-5 supersonics. Also the British Red Arrows were supposed to perform, but they had to cancel, so “only” two aerobatics team met at the event – besides the Turkish Stars there were Baltic Bees from Latvia with L-39 aircrafts.

A highly valued participant was Israel Air Force, which presented two F-15D Baz fighters and a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. Incidentally there were 4 Hercules aircrafts from 3 different air forces at the event. There also were Eurofighter Typhoon airplanes from three different air forces – there were German and Italian ones at static display and an Austrian one at flying display.

Also the civilian ground units were not lagging behind. The Czech and Polish police intervention units presented display of freeing hostages from hijacked aircraft and in joint display with the Czech special forces unit of customs administration, the German ZUZ customs special intervention unit presented itself for the second time in public and for the first time outside Germany.

Thanks to these and other participants, this year’s number of visitors for both days of the Weekend show surpassed the magical number of 200,000 visitors, because there were 225,000 visitors together enjoying the show.