trade by rst employing low-cost inert
bombs. Moreover, although most combat
missions are now own at medium to
high altitudes, low-level ying remains
an important skill. ‘It’s true’, says Fabio. ‘In
theater we normally operate at higher
altitudes. However, even in the most
complex scenarios, ying low remains an
option when you need to evade threats.
Even more so when you y the Tornado,
an aircraft designed to y at treetop
altitude, terrain-masking is an option you
can rely on. This is the reason why most
of our training takes place at low altitude.
In the past, our low- ying training took
place in Italy; then, for a certain period,
we deployed to Goose Bay in Canada.
More recently we have exploited the
deployments to Israel to y as low as 250ft
during multi-national exercises.’Evolving mission
There’s actually a fairly rigid pattern in
the training plan at the 154° Gruppo.
Around 60 per cent of the ying hours
are assigned to air interdiction, with 30
per cent to close air support plus army
and navy integration in roles such as
TASMO (tactical air support to maritime
operations), and another 10 per cent
dedicated to reconnaissance. Even
though recce is considered to be a core
business, the time spent training in this
role is relatively low. Indeed, the advent
of the RecceLite pod has signi cantly
reduced the workload of the aircrew.
‘The pod we use today is much more
advanced and it has simpli ed our work,’says Fabio. RecceLite is externally very
similar to the Litening targeting pod,
although it isn’t equipped to enable the
targeting of precision weapons. It features
digital recording and real-time imaging
capabilities. The pod can also be used in
an air-to-air mode for identifying aircraft at
range. Fabio adds, ‘That may be useful in
some scenarios, such as in Kuwait or Iraq,
where two AIM-9L air-to-air missiles were
the only weapons we carried and we could
use the pod to perform long-distance
visual identi cation of other tra c,
increasing our SA [situational awareness].’
On the ground at Deci, the 154° and
155° Gruppo operate alongside one
another in the same manner as they have
since the ‘Panthers’ and their ECRs moved
from Piacenza to Ghedi in 2016 to be
centralized under the 6° Stormo. ‘With
the arrival of the 155°, we are able tocarry out joint missions more frequently
than before,’ explains Fabio. ‘We are much
more integrated, so much so that the
daily plan includes mixed crews from
time to time, usually with a 154° pilot
and 155° nav, since they retain an air-to-
ground role. In these cases, the training
missions focus on the use of GPS-guided
weapons carried by the ECR. Although
possible, the opposite pairing [a 155°
pilot with a 154° WSO] is rather rare,
considering the special training needed
for the navigator [for the SEAD role].’
Looking at the day-to-day grind of a
Deci detachment, he says, ‘Our job here
is roughly the same [as at our home
base] even though it is done with greater
intensity. The real di erence is that there is
no space for [admin] during deployments
— basically, we only y.’ Re ecting
on recent operations, he continues,Despite its age, the ECR is still quite effective. In particular, our experience
over Libya was important to fi ne-tune some procedures and tactics that
needed to be refreshed and updated to become applicable to the current scenario
Col Stefano, commander 155° Gruppo ‘Panthers’Above: Italian
Tornados
normally fl y with
the BOZ-102
chaff and fl are
dispensers. When
devoid of stores,
it is known as
a ‘super-clean’
confi guration.
Below: This
ECR (EA-200B)
is carrying a
single AGM-88B
HARM under the
fuselage.TYPE REPORT // ITALIAN TORNADO
42 November 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net