From May 26th to June 13th, Istrana Airport, home to the 51st Wing of the Air Force, hosted for the second time the important aerial exercise conducted jointly with air assets from the Swiss Air Force and 31and Fighter Wing USAFE.
The SIFEX 2025 This was an important opportunity for integration between the Air Force and that of a non-NATO country, which allowed for improved coordination and interoperability activities, already developed during the first edition, fostering an exchange of technical and procedural knowledge between the air forces of two neighbouring nations.
For the SWISS AIR FORCE This is the second redeployment to Istrana airbase, once again identified for the operational role played by 51st Wing and from the technical and logistical support capabilities that the department is able to offer.
The Italian Air Force participated with aircraft Eurofighter F-2000A del 51st Wing of Istrana (TV), as well as with configurations F-35A of the 32nd Wing, Amendola (FG), and E.550A CAEW (Conformal Airborne Early Warning), in service with 14th Practice Wing of Pratica di Mare and a P-72 of the 41st Wing Sigonella. The component of The Swiss Air Force participated with six F18 aircraft, operating from Istrana base, while the F16 aircraft of the 31st Fighter Wing USAFE operated from the nearby Aviano Base. Numerous sorties were flown daily from Istrana airport, which allowed for a total of over 170 joint missions among the Italian and Swiss crews.
The 51st Wing of Istrana, in addition to aircraft Eurofighter Typhoon F-2000A del 132nd Flying Group, ensured indispensable logistical and operational support, providing a further opportunity for exchange of knowledge and experience between Italian and Swiss personnel, particularly in the areas of maintenance, refuelling, cross-servicing and air traffic.
The importance that this exercise has now taken on was also highlighted by the visit of the Commander of the Swiss Air Force, Major General Peter Merz, who was welcomed upon his arrival by the Commander of Air Combat Command, Air Division General Marco Lant, representing the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Air Squadron General Antonio Conserva, and by the Commander of the 51st Wing, Colonel Fabio De Luca.
During the visit, the Major General Merz He expressed words of thanks and gratitude for the hospitality and support provided by the Air Force, emphasizing the importance of this type of activity: ”This type of collaboration is important, as is being able to compare notes with other Air Forces. The useful experience gained can also be offered again in the future. We are grateful for the hospitality of the Italian Air Force and we clearly want to invest in this regard. This cooperation is important because Italy provides us with a much larger scenario than Switzerland, and therefore the complexity of the activities goes beyond Swiss standards. We will clearly push to continue this collaboration and improve this cooperation.
It General Lant has highlighted the importance of this type of exercise for the accomplishment of the Armed Force's primary task: “The Air Force constantly and continuously prepares to guarantee the surveillance service of our airspace and that of NATO. It is a complex time, and it is precisely for this reason that exercises of this type are functional in maintaining the Air Policing capability, i.e. airspace surveillance, not only here in Italy, but also the extended airspace of the entire Atlantic alliance. Our Armed Force collaborates and actively contributes to this activity with Air Policing operations from Iceland to the Baltic States and as far as Romania, and among other things, in Romania there is currently a deployment of our aircraft led by the 51st Wing. Continuing specifically, regarding SIFEX25: “It is extremely important to involve neighbouring countries to build, consolidate and cement the operational and technical procedures that must be implemented seamlessly to ensure our airspace is fully integrated. Working together with different assets from different countries helps to cement this collaboration.’
The Commander of the 51st Wing, Colonel De Luca, highlighted the importance of training to refine essential procedures and to ensure an ever-increasing volume of missions “The exercise is a process of mutual understanding, leading to a sharing of a set of standard tactics and procedures. The aim is to continue collaborating with Swiss personnel. We have six Swiss F18s here, with procedures that we constantly need to refine and that allow us to cooperate in the event of any aircraft intruding into our airspace. These are procedures that we have written together and that we try to practise and adapt every year to ensure that coordination is perfect. For this exercise, simulations were planned with an increasing mission difficulty. The exercise had a significant volume of activity which allowed us to make the most of this period spent training together.
The 51st Wing of Istrana is under the command of Combat Forces Command (CFC) of Milan, whose assigned mission is to acquire and maintain the operational readiness of all air defence, attack and reconnaissance defence bodies, ensuring the operational efficiency of weapon systems, means and materials, as well as personnel training and the constant updating and optimisation of operational procedures, in compliance with the guidelines of the SS.AA. The CFC reports to Air Squad Command which exercises the powers relating to the training, readiness and operational preparation of its Squadrons, so that they acquire and maintain the foreseen levels of operational readiness. The 51st Wing, equipped with the F2000 aircraft, in addition to supporting surface forces and carrying out attack and reconnaissance operations, is one of the five Wings of the Air Force that ensure national air defence and service of Quick Reaction Alert of NATO.
