Italian
Eurofi ghters
were readied for the
summer heat of Bulgaria
as from July they
headed to Graf Ignatievo
to jointly secure the
regional airspace
the Aeronautica Militare pilots notched
up around 40 per cent of their air-to-air
currency training ghting the resident
MiG-29s. Dissimilar air combat training
(DACT) was very much the order of
the day, as well as electronic warfare
missions to make use of the local
ground-based air defense system.
These NATO missions were
interspersed with a packed exercise
schedule, which included ‘DACT 2017’
at Gando air base in the Canary Islands
in January, the NATO Tiger Meet at
BAN Landivisiau in France during June,Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP)
2017-1 and 2017-3 at Albacete in Spain
and Exercise ‘Joint Stars 2017’ across Italy
in November.
It’s worth re ecting on the varied
range of partners and types the Italian
F-2000s operated with during 2017.
Deployments take an unexpectedly
heavy toll on the day-to-day operations
of squadrons, both from the manning
and aircraft availability perspectives.
The sheer level of commitment from the
Italian Euro ghters is therefore all the
more remarkable.Above: Three
Aeronautica
Militare F-2000As
and a single
two-seat Spanish
Eurofi ghter on
the fl ight line at
Gando during
‘DACT 2017’.
Below: This shot
was taken to
mark a change
of command at
the 18° Gruppo at
Trapani.EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON // ITALIAN AIR FORCE
70 April 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
68-70 SUPP_Italy C.indd 70 15/02/2018 13:40