Combat Aircraft – September 2019

A

S MORE OPERATORS take

F-35s on their charge,

the business of proving

interoperability — one of

the main drivers behind the

program — is becoming

increasingly evident. On July 2, the

Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force,

AM) — already a particularly proactive

Lightning II operator — welcomed

American and British examples to the

32° Stormo at Amendola for some

joint training.

The US Air Force F-35As are in Europe

for a Theater Support Package (TSP),

while the British F-35Bs were en route

home from ‘Lightning Dawn’ — the

maiden UK deployment at RAF

Akrotiri, Cyprus.

Aside from the well-run media event

(that included an aerial photoshoot),

the day was split into two phases. In

the morning, a pair of AM F-35As joined

two F-35Bs from No 617 Squadron

‘Dambusters’ that had stopped off on

the way back to RAF Marham, Norfolk,

the previous day for what the UK

had imaginatively dubbed Exercise

‘Staccato Pursuit’. The afternoon ‘wave’

saw resident jets joining a rather more

complex air exercise alongside four

USAF F-35As from the 421st Fighter

Squadron plus other AM assets including

Eurofighter F-2000As.

Col Davide Marzinotto, the 32° Stormo

commander, said: ‘This is the first meeting

between our air force and the Royal Air

Force and it is the first step [towards]

continuous joint work for the future in

order to consolidate interoperability

between two of the most important air

forces in the F-35 program.’

‘Lightning Dawn’

Officer commanding No 617 Squadron,

Wg Cdr John Butcher gave a few

welcome details of the first British F-35

deployment under ‘Lightning Dawn’. ‘[In

Cyprus] we immediately implemented

the logistics chain that allowed us to

optimize our efficiency to support the

[Operation] ‘Shader’ mission — the UK

participation in activities against Daesh.’

Butcher said all six of the deployed

F-35Bs took part in ‘armed overwatch

missions in support of forces on the

ground’. He added: ‘The detachment

of Typhoons was located next to ours,

but everyone worked on their own,

they provided us with all the necessary

Another in a series of small joint F-35 exercises took place at

Amendola, Italy, on July 2. Combat Aircraft assesses the outcome.

REPORT AND PHOTOS Giovanni Colla and Remo Guidi

http://www.combataircraft.net // September 2019 65

64-67 Italy F-35 in UK C.indd 65 18/07/2019 13:20