Testing the ability to project, with very short notice, an adequate package of forces, complete in all its enabling components, in an area of interest even far from the motherland and in a semi-permissive environment: this is the objective of the exercise "Proof of Concept Expeditionary", an event designed to summarize the main and peculiar projection capabilities of the forces that the Air Force is able to express today in the service of Defense and the Country.
The activity, which was also attended by the chief of staff of the Air Force, general of the air squad Alberto Rosso, took place on Thursday 30 July on the island of Pantelleria, within the Airport Detachment of the Air Force which for more eighty years old, it constitutes an important strategic defense in the heart of the Mediterranean.
A scenario identified precisely to recreate those conditions of distance from permanent air bases and of reduced logistical support, including the presence of a take-off and landing runway of limited dimensions where conventional fighters cannot operate, typical of those that are defined in technical jargon "bare / austere base". In particular, an F-35B, short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL - Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing) version of the new 5th generation fighter, recently assigned to the 32nd wing of Amendola (FG) - the main and most current enabling factor of the aforementioned expeditionary capacity of the Armed Force - after having previously checked the safety conditions necessary for landing, it made a low-speed approach to the Pantelleria runway, stopping its landing run in just a few hundred meters.
The aircraft was then refueled on the ground with a special procedure directly from a KC-130J tanker aircraft and was armed in a very short time, and then took off again for the continuation of the assigned mission. All this took place in a safety setting for the aircraft, vehicles and personnel involved, constantly ensured thanks to a reconnaissance and surveillance system from above, a mobile command and control structure and specialized personnel units. Force Protection.
"The Air Force is one of the few air forces in the world capable of having, concretely, today a full and autonomous ability to project aerospace power", said General Rosso. "This is a capability that does not concern a single aircraft, such as the F-35B, an essential and enabling factor in this context but of which it represents only a piece, but which requires the real ability to integrate a whole series of fundamental skills that the Armed Force is able to express, operating not only from home, from our bases, where we have all the necessary support logistics, but also far from national borders and in non-permissive contexts if, where and when deemed necessary ".
This is an important capability at the service of the country, "added the Air Force chief of staff, "also in light of the changing, flexible and unpredictable scenarios with which we are somehow called to live and confront each other. We, like all armed forces, must be ready for any eventuality. Flexibility of use, dispersion and unpredictability, both in a key to deterrence which, as a real operational capability, are factors I consider essential in any hypothetical scenario ".
Several logistical structures involved in the exercise activity, including in particular theAir Landed Aircraft Refueling Point (ALARP), a system that allows the withdrawal of fuel directly from the tanks of the KC-130J aircraft and allows the simultaneous refueling of up to four aircraft. The activity was ensured by the specialized personnel of the 3rd wing of Villafranca (VE), the main expression of the Armed Force's logistical projection capabilities.
The presence of a cell of Combat Controller of the 17 ° flock Incursori and a device of Force Protection of the Air Riflemen of the 16th Wing of Martina Franca (BA), supported from above by a remotely piloted aircraft MQ-9A Predator B of the 32nd flock with Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) functions in real time, have allowed the maintenance of a constant monitoring and security framework, ensuring full operation for the necessary time and creating, in a very short time, the framework of security necessary to complete the mission.
The KC-130J of the 46th Air Brigade of Pisa ensured both the transport of personnel, materials and armament, and the peculiar capacity of refueling in flight (AAR - Air to Air Refueling) in favor of the F-35B engaged in the exercise.
