This afternoon, Thursday 29th August, a hunting couple Euro Fighter of the Italian Air Force took off from the Grosseto air base to intercept an ultralight aircraft whose flight plan was unknown and which was moving along the Adriatic coast of Abruzzo in a northerly direction.
To give the order for immediate intervention (in technical jargon Alpha Scramble) was the combined air operations centre of Torrejon (Spain), the NATO command that controls the Alliance's airspace south of the Alps, which through the Aerospace Operations Command - 11th DAMI (Integrated Missile Air Defense) group of Poggio Renatico (FE) has activated the pair of Euro Fighter of the 4th Wing who were already in flight for a training activity.
The pair of military aircraft immediately headed towards the unknown air track and, once they reached the ultralight aircraft at the height of Recanati, carried out the planned procedure. visual identification (VID) to ensure that there were no emergency conditions or threats to safety. The aircraft was however followed and escorted until it landed near an airstrip north of Recanati.
Previously, the two military aircraft had been activated to intercept another civilian aircraft that was not responding to radio calls but had then re-established communications with air traffic control agencies.
This is a particular type of intervention, carried out by aircraft already in flight as part of planned exercises and training activities, which further reduces reaction times and allows for the optimisation of the operational resources employed in this area.
The Italian Air Force ensures continuous surveillance of the national airspace. The Air Defense system against military threats, since peacetime, is under the control of NATO which, through the Combined Air Operation Centre (CAOC) in Torrejon (Spain), carries out surveillance of the airspace south of the Alps, from the Canary Islands to Turkey and from the Azores to Romania.
The service is guaranteed - for the surveillance, identification and control part - by the 11th DAMI group of Poggio Renatico (FE) and by the 22nd DAMI group of Licola (NA), both dependent on the airspace control brigade of the aerospace operations command of Poggio Renatico (FE), while the flight intervention is ensured by four bases: 4th wing of Grosseto, 36th wing of Gioia del Colle, 37th wing of Trapani Birgi and 51st wing of Istrana, the latter permanently starting from April 2020. All the wings mentioned are equipped with fourth-generation fighter aircraft. Euro Fighter.
Furthermore, since March 2018, the F-35A aircraft of the 32nd wing of Amendola have also been integrated into the national air defense system, which contribute, with specific operational capabilities and latest-generation technology, to the defense of Italian skies and which were the first 5th generation airplanes to be used by NATO to monitor the Alliance's airspace in a NATO operation of Air Policing.
