Between 5 and 19 March, personnel and equipment were deployed to support the operations of six Eurofighter aircraft at Decimomannu Air Base. The simultaneous presence of the 36th Wing’s Eurofighters enabled the two units to work together and refine thecrew standardisation programme that has been underway for some time. The first week saw missions carried out with progressively increasing difficulty, culminating in scenarios involving 10 Eurofighters simultaneously, divided into ‘Blue Forces’ and ‘Red Forces’, with the latter consistently simulating potential state-of-the-art threats. The second week was devoted to continuing the training, with the addition of COMAO missions in which the German Tornados – also stationed at the base – were incorporated, resulting in scenarios involving 16 aircraft, 12 of which were Eurofighters. The second week of the campaign also saw missions carried out in support of the ‘Mare Aperto’ exercise, which took place in the areas south of Sardinia and involved Harrier aircraft and naval units of the Italian Navy, as well as MB-339 and Tornado aircraft. The Eurofighters were deployed both in roles defending the naval task force during joint missions with the Harriers and in escort missions for the attack forces. During the AACMI campaign at Decimomannu, the 4th Wing achieved excellent training results. The simultaneous presence of the entire Italian Eurofighter community made it possible to optimise the standardisation process across the squadrons, whilst the AACMI system enabled thorough debriefings to be carried out, during which the crews were able to analyse the various tactics in use. In terms of the efficiency of the aircraft deployed during the two weeks of activity, 112 missions were carried out out of the 114 planned, with an operational availability of the six aircraft involved in the exercise standing at approximately 98.3%. No aircraft changes were necessary, and no major faults were recorded in the various on-board systems. This result was made possible thanks to the professional expertise of the technical staff of the 4th Wing and the careful planning of the redeployment logistics, which ensured that, whenever necessary, everything required to restore the aircraft to operational readiness was available.
