The flight phase of the campaign was officially launched at Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake on 20 February Blazing Shield, one of the most complex and significant operations organized overseas by the Air Force in the last decade.
There are four aircraft assets involved in the campaign Tornado ECR, coming from the 6th Wing of Ghedi, four Eurofighters Typhoon of the 4th, 36th and 37th Stormo and a C-27J Spartan of the 46 ^ Air Brigade of Pisa, arrived at the China Lake Base after an ocean flight that also touched the Lajes Airport, in the Azores, and that of Portsmouth, in New Hampshire. To support the crossing, the KC-767A tankers of the 14th Wing and a C-130J of the 46th Air Brigade were used, in function of oceanic SAR for the sea sections.
A substantial airlift from Italy to the United States, over the last week, finally allowed the transfer of the men, vehicles and materials needed to support all flight operations over the next two months.
In order to guarantee the necessary operation of the Blazing Shield a special Autonomous Flight Department (RAV) has been set up, under the leadership of Colonel Marco Bertoli of the Combat Forces Command, made up of more than 220 troops from various Air Force Bodies within the General Staff, at the Air Squadron Command and to the Logistic Command.
With the Blazing Shield, the Aeronautica Militare will conduct an activity of Operational Test & Evaluation (OT&E), through a joint team of the Departments of the Armed Force led by the Experimental Flight Department (RSV), on the combination of the new AARGM (Advanced Anti Radiation Guided Missile) and the Tornado ECR aircraft, also including two live fire. In addition to this important objective, the opportunity will be exploited to validate and improve the self-protection capabilities of the Eurofighter, Tornado and C-27J platforms, in order to expand their capacity of use in all the theaters in which they will be called to operate.
