Italian Eurofighter fleet successfully completes “Typhoon Flag 2023” Exercise.
Almost twenty years after its introduction into service within Aeronautica Militare Italiana (Italian Air Force – ItAF), the Eurofighter F-2000 Typhoon still represent the backbone of the frontline units, being in service with six combat squadrons and in a single OCU squadron, among four different Stormi (Wings).
After obtaining the Full Operational Capability (FOC) the aircraft was soon widely used in numerous national and NATO exercises and in operational deployments abroad (particularly in the Middle East in support of the anti-ISIS coalition and in air policing missions in Iceland, Eastern Europe and in to the Baltic Countries). During such activities the ItAF soon began to adopt a peculiar modus operandi towards the units that use the aircraft, making them work as a ‘single community’ rather than operating individually, thus seeking to optimize the use of both human and material resources.
Over the years this path has demonstrated its validity and so the ItAF has decided to consolidate it by starting to carry out specific training activities called “Typhoon Flag 2023” for the “Typhoon community”.
Initially used almost exclusively in air-to-air roles, throughout his career the F-2000 achieved new capabilities (and others are expected to be added in the future) due to several progressive software upgrades and the introduction of new weapons, and nowaday is fully employed as a swing role fighter. Of course this required also a constant adaptation of training activities.
This year “Typhoon Flag 2023” (TF 2023) took place at Grosseto air base from 28 August to 8 September, involving personnel and a dozen of Typhoons belonging to the local 4° Stormo (Wing), the 36° Stormo from Gioia del Colle, 37° Stormo from Trapani and 51° Stormo from Istrana.
As Col.Filippo Monti, commander of the 4° Stormo, explains: “It is an activity that we try to do once a year. It is said:“Don’t air your dirty laundry” and it’s exactly like that. It is where we understand where are we going wrong, where we need to improve, what tactics should be better to implement. Typhoon Flag represents an important opportunity to consolidate standardization, seeing how to align both operational and maintenance procedures among the various squadron operating the Eurofighters, increasing the spirit of cooperation and sharing”.
Lt.Col.Giovanni Parisi, director of the exercise, says: “The TF 2023 focuses on two macro areas. One area concerns each pilot and his training. With the aim to improve his skills he can deal with a fixed scenario, in case the pilot needs to fill some gaps, or carrying out advanced training in complex operational scenarios that evolve day after day, where, for example, a young pilot flies as a solo, wingman or leader of a formation flying with qualified “Weapons Instructors”, taking advantage of the lessons learned by them.
These “Weapons Instructors” have in turn mastered and refined their knowledge at the previous edition of the Typhoon Flag or for example during the Cobra Warrior exercise, held at RAF Waddington, United Kingdom, last year.
The second area concerns the complete exploitation of the Eurofighter’s potential. This, let it be clear, is not intended to be an experimental activity – which is delegated exclusively to the Reparto Sperimentale di Volo (RSV) but the application of what has already been tested and which is now available to the frontline’s pilots.
We try to develop new possible tactics, benefiting from the increased aircraft’s performance due the software upgrades and then verify the actual effectiveness of the new tactic, or as in the case of this edition, the “simulated” use of the Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air (BVRAAM) missile”.
During the fifteen days of the exercise, both air-to-air and air-to-ground mission of various types were carried out in two daily waves (one in the morning and the other in the afternoon) each with about ten aircraft: DCA (Defensive Counter Air), OCA (Offensive Counter Air) and Swing Role, in-flight refueling missions thus involving areas over the Tyrrhenian Sea or those in the area central Italy, sometimes flying together with the G550 CAEW, F-35 and KC-767, increasing the realism of the scenario when was necessary to try some specific things.
The next Typhoon Flags exercises are supposed to be carried out, on rotation, on all the bases which hosting Eurofighter’s squadrons.
The authors would express their gratitude to Aeronautica Militare, to Col. Filippo Monti Commander of 4° Stormo, to Lt.Col.Giovanni Parisi Director of the exercise and to Ten. Emanuela De Marchi PAO of 4° Stormo for the opportunity to attend the media day organised for Typhoon Flag 2023.
Link to previous exercise hosted at Grosseto Air Base: Emerald Strike 2023.
Link to the article from ItAF.