Eject! Eject! Eject! In this episode of The Allied Airpower Podcast, Jose ‘Houdini’ Davis sits down with Danish Lieutenant Colonel Martin ‘AMI’ Friis for a conversation about life in the cockpit and what it takes to become a NATO fighter pilot.
AMI recalls a 1996 departure on a routine training flight: Sitting behind a student pilot in an F-16, he received a warning from the control tower: their engine was on fire. Looking over his shoulder, he saw orange surrounding the aircraft. Within seconds, he ordered both pilots to eject. Both survived; AMI was flying again the following week.
That experience gives weight to his explanation of fighter flying. Pilots must stay ahead of the aircraft, managing communications, scanning their surroundings, and making tactical decisions. Training makes flying second nature.
With a career spanning around four decades, including seventeen years flying the F-16, AMI has served as a squadron commander, an instructor at NATO’s Tactical Leadership Programme, and Denmark’s chief of aviation safety. Today, in Allied Air Command’s A3 Operations Support Branch, he helps turn NATO plans into major exercises, including Ramstein Flag: bringing cockpit experience to the preparation of Allied forces.
The conversation also explores the future of air warfare. Drawing on Ukraine, AMI discusses identifying airborne threats and selecting the right capabilities to defeat them. And while modern weapons favour engagements beyond visual range, he explains why dogfighting remains a skill pilots must retain.
For AMI, shared training builds the trust that allows Allied aviators to fly and fight together. His childhood memory of the fortified border between East and West Germany brings that mission back to its human purpose: defending “our family, our kids, our neighbors and friends.”
Recorded Tuesday, 19 May 2026.
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