home bases. This was about bringing all
Italian agencies together and preparing
to meet any range of potential threats.
AM F-35As were deployed to Trapani
air base in Sicily with six aircraft taking
up temporary residence there. Combat
Aircraft gained exclusive access to the
detachment. Maj Maurizio De Guida,
commander of the 13° Gruppo from
Amendola, said: ‘This is the third ‘Joint
Stars’ in which the F-35s has taken part.
We create the conditions to let other
assets enter a hostile area. Today’s
mission [May 28] included five F-35s,
of which three participated as ‘Blue’forces on the friendly side, with two as
‘Red’. ‘Blue’ had the aim of finding and
eliminating surface-to-air missiles in
order to guarantee secure access for
the other friendly aircraft involved in
the mission.’
Maj De Guida said the F-35s were
engaged with the command and control
assets — redistributing them according
to specific needs.The authors would like to thank Stato Maggiore
Difesa and the Aeronautica Militare Public Affairs
Office for their assistance in the preparation of
this feature.US Marine Corps MV-22Bs
of VMM-261 took part in
‘Joint Stars’ — the unit is
currently deployed to Morón
Air Base, Spain, as part of
the Special Purpose Marine
Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis
Response-Africa.Italian Tornado ECRs continue to operate
in the specialist suppression of enemy air
defenses role, but the F-35 will likely step
into this mission in the future.http://www.combataircraft.net // September 2019 63
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