Spectacular livery of a Portuguese Air Force F-16 for the Tiger Meet 2025

From September 21st to October 3rd, Beja Air Base No. 11 in Portugal is hosting NATO's Tiger Meet 2025.

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This Tiger Meet brings together 15 NATO fighter squadrons and one squadron from Austria, a country that does not belong to the Atlantic Alliance. The Spanish Air Force is represented by the 142nd Squadron of Wing 14, based in Los Llanos (Albacete).

The host unit for this meeting is Esquadra 301 "Jaguares", based in Beja. Created in 1969 as Esquadra 502, it has been a member of the NATO Tigers since 1978. This squadron operated Fiat G.91 Gina fighters until 1993, when they received their current aircraft, the F-16A/B Block 15. In 2005, it began receiving the F-16 Block 20 MLU (mid-life upgrade).

Portuguese F-16s commonly sport the classic Hill Grey scheme with three shades of grey (FS 36118, 36270 and 36375) used by the USAF from the late 1970s to 1990.

For the 2011 Tiger Meet, Esquadra 301 decorated one of its F-16AMs in this way, maintaining the Hill Grey scheme and painting the wing with an illustration alluding to that meet that included the image of a jaguar (the feline that gives its name to the unit), some tiger stripes and the four-pointed star of NATO. This aircraft, 15106, still carries this decoration, although somewhat faded due to sun exposure.

A week ago, the Portuguese Air Force unveiled the spectacular livery of one of its F-16AMs for Tiger Meet 2025.

This time, the Hill Grey paint job disappears completely: the plane has been completely painted like a tiger. A very high-quality livery.

The aircraft chosen for this livery is 15107, an aircraft that carried the Hill Grey scheme since its inception and was stripped of its paint for the MLU update in 2011 (then photographed flying without insignia and with a yellow paint job), being repainted in the Hill Grey scheme until now.

The Portuguese Air Force has published a very good video today about this Tiger Meet, in which we can see more images of 15107 with its new livery:

These full liveries are a tradition at NATO Tiger Meets. Some air forces often decorate one of their aircraft for this type of meeting, a custom that has existed for decades. The Portuguese Air Force already did something similar with one of its FIAT G.91s, as we can see in this photo by Pedro Aragão.

For the 2021 Tiger Meet, the Portuguese Air Force has already painted one of its F-16s with a full livery, specifically F-16AM 15116.

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Photos: Força Aérea Portuguesa.