NATO Days 2021 is over and there was a lot to see. The weekend programme was really varied including some very interesting dynamic demonstrations. The presentations were of course dominated by military aircraft and helicopters from various countries around the world, but there was also ground equipment on display. Although this year's event was capacity constrained due to COVID-19, attendance was plentiful and visitors had a great time.

Saturday started with a parachute jump by Czech paratroopers, followed by dynamic demonstrations both in the air and on the ground (e.g. intervention against attackers attacking the airport). Impressive was then the opening joint flypast of the US Air Force KC-130 tanker aircraft and Airbus A-330 MRTT together with the Air Force aircraft.

Picture: Intervention against an attack on the airport | Martin Šiška

A very interesting part of the programme was the joint flypast of Swedish aircraft, from historic Saab aircraft to JAS-39 Gripen. F-16 fighter aircraft of the Greek Zeus Demo Team and Turkish Soloturk were also on display. 

On the ground, in addition to the Czech Armed Forces, the Police of the Czech Republic, the Prison Service, the Customs Administration, the Fire Rescue Service and the Ostrava Municipal Police presented themselves in various dynamic demonstrations.

A great surprise of this year's NATO Days was the unprecedented joint parachute jump of twenty Czech and Israeli paratroopers from a CASA military aircraft in honour of the very good mutual Czech-Israeli relations that have lasted for over 70 years. Zbyněk Pavlačík, chairman of the Jagello 2000 association, which organises the NATO Days, commented on the above event as follows. Thanks to this, we can offer our visitors this unique jump, because the participation of Israeli forces in a public event in Europe is very rare."

Picture: American Viper helicopter | Martin Šiška

Picture: American Venom helicopter | Martin Šiška

As part of the static demonstrations, the audience could see, among other things, the 5th generation Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighter aircraft of the Italian Air Force, the American Venom and Viper helicopters and the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft from BELL.

Picture: V-22 Osprey | Martin Šiška

Picture: V-22 Osprey | Martin Šiška

The attention of the spectators was certainly drawn by the US giant military aircraft C-5M Super Galaxy. There were also US Army AH-64D Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters on display. Also interesting was the four-engine turboprop transport aircraft A400M Atlas of the German Luftwaffe.

Picture: A400M Atlas transport aircraft of the German Luftwaffe, with a giant US Army C-5M Super Galaxy in the background | Martin Šiška

As far as ground equipment is concerned, there were e.g. Lynx KF41, CV90 and ASCOD vehicles on display. Spectators could also see the German Leopard 2A7 Main Battle Tank. The Fire and Rescue Corps presented its Tatra vehicles.

In total, the event was visited by 60,000 people over the two days.