information during the briefings,
suggestions on airspace, but each then
operated individually.’
Speaking of the joint Israeli training with
F-35Is that took place on June 25, Butcher
said it was a ‘positive experience’, adding:
‘We didn’t fly any particular missions.’Amendola encounter
Maj Maurizio De Guida, the 13° Gruppo
commander, enthused about how easy
it had been to plan the missions: ‘I met
Wg Cdr Butcher yesterday, we talked for
10 minutes and we carried out a mission
that would have been impossible to fly
with any other airplane. We ‘talked’ to each
other on the same MADL [Multifunction
Advanced Data Link].’ He added: ‘We
were in the same jets and we performed
a difficult mission with an almost
embarrassing simplicity.’
The afternoon sortie saw the US jets
taking off from their temporary home at
Spangdahlem, Germany, before flying the
mission and then landing at Amendola
to debrief face-to-face. This wasn’t
exactly breaking new ground as the two
squadrons had recently collaborated
under Exercise ‘Astral Knight’.
Maj De Guida added: ‘This afternoon’s
mission involved other assets, but what
we like to emphasize is the omni-role
aspect that we, as the lead nation, want
to bring to the mission. In the afternoon
we didn’t do anything differently than this
morning — we just changed the assets
and the area of operations.’
The British F-35s returned to Marham
and immediately started using the new
purpose-built enclave on the southern
side of the airfield. Having witnessed the
impressive F-35 ‘citadel’ at Amendola, it
must have come as a welcome sight as the
‘Dambusters’ arrived home.This image: A fine
echelon formation
of British and Italian
F-35Bs and F-35As,
respectively.
Below left to right:
British and Italian
F-35s ease out
of Amendola’s
impressive bespoke
hangars.
Crown Copyright
Wg Cdr John Butcher
(left) with Maj
Maurizio De Guida
and a USAF pilot.
The F-35 operators
made specific
mention of the ease
of briefing what they
referred to as a ‘fairly
complex’ mission
profile.
Crown CopyrightEXERCISE REPORT // F-35 JOINT OPS
66 September 2019 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
64-67 Italy F-35 in UK C.indd 66 18/07/2019 13:20