Air Policing mission in Iceland completed

(To Greater Defense)
04/10/18

In the morning, with the departure of the Eurofighter aircraft from Keflavik-Iceland Airport, the phase of re-deployment of the assets and personnel of the Task Force Air 37th Wing began, risky in Iceland for the "Northern Stork" mission.

The departure of airplanes and Air Force personnel marks the end of the Air Policing mission for the Defense of NATO Airspace over the skies of Iceland.

Starting from the September 12, in fact, following the achievement of the Full Operational Capability on behalf of NATO, and for three weeks, the Italian detachment has ensured the integrity of NATO's airspace, strengthening the surveillance of the skies of Iceland that does not possess autonomous air defense capabilities and structures.

The operation was attended by pilots, technical officers, specialists and logistic and operational personnel of the 4th, 36th and 37th Wing. Furthermore, controllers of the Italian Air Defense of the 11th DAMI Group of Poggio Renatico (FE) and the 22nd Radar Group of Licola (NA) were deployed at the Icelandic CRC LOKI (Control and Reporting Center) of Keflavìk, in order to to provide the Icelandic airspace coordination, identification and surveillance services.

In three weeks, the Task Force Air performed in total more than 90 flight hours, with more than 22 sorties of Scramble simulated for operational readiness training and numerous training missions to keep the navigating personnel fully operational. Joint training activities were also carried out with the Icelandic Coast Guard, the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) and the US Navy, in order to improve the flexibility of the structures and with a view to standardizing the procedures. The Force Protection of the personnel and of the Italian material on the Icelandic airport has been entrusted to the "Air Riflemen" of the 16 ° Stormo dell'Aeronautica Militare.

The re-deployment phases, as well as those for initial redeployment, will be guaranteed by the personnel and by the C-130J airplanes of the 46 ^ Pisa Air Brigade, KC767 of the 14 ° Wing of Pratica di Mare as well as by the Air Mobility staff Operations Unit (AMOU), which will ensure the correct handling of the material and passengers on board the aircraft.

The Italian Air Force is continuously participating in Interim Air Policing in Albania, starting from 2009, Slovenia, from 2004, alternating in this service with Greece and Hungary respectively, and has already been engaged in Iceland in June 2013.The Air Policing activity has been conducted since the time of peace and consists in the continuous surveillance of the integrity of NATO's airspace and in the identification of possible breaches of integrity, before which appropriate law enforcement actions must be triggered. , as, for example, the rapid take-off of interceptor fighter aircraft, which in technical terms is called scramble.

 Air Policing is carried out within the area of ​​responsibility of the Allied Command Operation (ACO) station in Brussels and is coordinated by Ramstein's Air Command (GER).