di Mare air bases. Croatian MiG-21s
also took part, flying from Zemuniku.
It marked the first occasion where US
and Italian Lightning IIs had worked in
a close partnership and interestingly
the suppression of enemy air defenses
(SEAD) mission played a significant part
in the scenarios.
The 421st Fighter Squadron ‘Black
Widows’ and its Air Force Reserve
Command partner the 466th FS, led
this second USAF F-35 TSP deployment
to Europe. Lt Col Richard Orzechowski,
421st FS commander, told Combat
Aircraft, ‘We’ve been able to leverage
the experience of the 4th FS and 34th FS
and take the squadron on the road just
six months after getting our first jets.
We didn’t receive our first aircraft until
December 2018 and — based on the
delivery schedule from Lockheed — it
has been a slow process getting the
assigned number of aircraft.’
F-35 pilot Maj James Russell is a
reservist in the 419th FW. He added,
‘This effort is a demonstration of our
Total Force Integration construct hard
at work between the 388th and 419th
Fighter Wings. On a larger scale, it’s
a great opportunity to showcase our
newest fighter platform to our partner
nations and assure those nations of our
continued support for their safety and
security.’
The USAF F-35s were expected to visit
Amendola, the home of the 32° Stormo,
the first Italian F-35 wing, and were also
set to fly alongside Norwegian and Royal
Air Force Lightning IIs.Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank
Lt Col Alessandro Alfonsi and Capt Korey Fratini for
their assistance in producing this feature.With the Alps towering in the background,
an F-35A gets airborne for an ‘Astral
Knight’ mission. It carries external
weapons rails for the AIM-9X Sidewinder
but without missiles attached.
Giovanni Colla and Daniele FaccioliA tooled-up F-16C from the Aviano-
resident 555th Fighter Squadron ‘Triple
Nickel’. Giovanni Colla and Daniele Faccioli66 August 2019 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
EXERCISE REPORT// ASTRAL KNIGHT
64-67 Astral Knight C.indd 66 21/06/2019 12:58