Last week, at the headquarters of the 87th Squadron Surveillance & Reconnaissance of the military base of Amab (Baghdad), the first meeting between the personnel of the Italian Air Force included in Task Force Air and the Iraqi military component took place.
The main objective was to schedule the calendar of future meetings with Iraqi personnel, in order to train them on the doctrine Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and allow them to develop their own from which to derive the appropriate Technical - Tactical Procedures (TTPs).
The 87th Squadron is entrusted with the task of contributing to updating the situation on the ground through the use of the ISR King Air 350 ER, an aircraft equipped with a sensor capable of producing high quality video in electro-optical, infrared and Synthetic aperture radar. The videos are subsequently enhanced by the support cell for land operations, made up of Iraqi image analysts, to extrapolate Intelligence information. In this context, the Italian Defense personnel, inserted within the anti-Daesh Coalition, were asked to support the 87th Squadron in the development of a new, more streamlined, faster and easily shareable decision-making process among the various Commanders, able to to optimize available Iraqi resources in terms of cost and time.
This prestigious assignment confirms, once again, the Italian contribution within the coalition and the level of trust and esteem that the soldiers of the Air - Ita Task Force have gained in the Iraqi leadership.
Thanks to the level of professionalism and human and interpersonal skills, the personnel of the Italian Air Force, inserted within the 370th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group (AEAG), managed to create an integration in the most important projects with a development concrete from the strategic phase to the tactical phase, contributing to the implementation of the advsing project in the field of ISR doctrine from its embryonic stages.
Senior of the Italian personnel of the Air Ita Task Force, as well as deputy commander of the 370th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group, is Colonel Giovanni Trebisonda, pilot officer who, in addition to being a point of contact between the Coalition and the Iraqi side, followed together with the his team the development of the training process of the new project.
The 370th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group reports directly to the 321st Air Expeditionary Wing commanded by American General Richard Boutwell. Under the 370th AEAG there are two Detachments and two Support Groups located on the Iraqi bases of Balad, Taji and on the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center.
The Air Task Force inserted in the mission First Parthica contributes to the OIR campaign which provides for the strengthening of the operational capabilities of the Iraqi Armed Forces.
