From 5th to 15th December 2011, Italian Air Force aircraft trained at the Ovda air base (Israel). These exercises allow crews to refine procedures and techniques in order to be able to act promptly in crisis control missions, within a framework of international cooperation. The increasingly frequent need to operate in multinational scenarios requires, in fact, the perfect integration of systems from different countries through the development of procedural standards in order to achieve maximum effectiveness of action. Air Division General Enzo Vecciarelli, Italian Air Force Flag Officer during the DV/Media Day held on 12th December at the Ovda air base, stated that “the Desert Dusk 2011 exercise forms part of the broader context of international Defence cooperation activities, which involve, multilaterally or bilaterally, NATO countries and friendly nations with which there are ties through institutional cooperation agreements, such as, amongst others, the “5+5” initiative between the nations bordering the Mediterranean”.
General Vecciarelli added that “the Desert Dusk 2011 exercise represents an excellent training opportunity because it is conducted with a country that boasts excellence in the field of Defence (technological enablers), as well as being an opportunity to further improve the quality of the Italian Air Force's performance in the field of National Air Defence. “The exercise “Desert Dusk 2011 – stated Lt Col Urbano Floreani, Head of the Italian Deployment – aimed to train the Typhoon and Tornado fleets to operate synergistically and safely in threat-saturated environments while maintaining a high degree of effectiveness, and simultaneously verified the validity of currently employed tactics“. Lt Col. Floreani also pointed out that “[...] the ability of the Italian Air Force units to redeploy out-of-area with the primary use of KC-767A assets from the 14th Wing based in Pratica di Mare (RM) and C-130J aircraft from the 46th Air Brigade based in Pisa has been successfully tested, as has the capability of the Italian Air Force's operational logistics to support the personnel, vehicles and equipment required to conduct the exercise, such as the use of information systems (SiLEF)”. F-2000 aircraft from the 4th Wing of Grosseto and the 36th Wing of Gioia del Colle (BA), along with Tornado ECRs from the 50th Wing of Piacenza, have been deployed to Ovda air base to carry out a detailed training programme in cooperation with the I.A.F., which includes, amongst other things, combined COMAO (COMposite Air Operation) missions. During the exercise, which involved a total of around 25 aircraft, Italian Air Force assets flew approximately 100 sorting missions. Around 150 Italian Air Force personnel were involved in the event.
