The exercise ended on Friday 21 March at the 36th fighter wing in Gioia del Colle (BA). personnel recovery week 25 – 01, a training activity that involved personnel and assets from the Italian Air Force and NATO forces with the aim of refining the techniques, tactics and procedures for the recovery and protection of isolated personnel in a hostile environment.
Specifically, the activities involved the Eurofighter fighters of the 36th and 37th Wings of Trapani, the HH-101A helicopters of the 9th Wing of Grazzanise (CS), G-550 – CAEW aircraft of the 14th Wing of Pratica di Mare (RM) and P-72A of the 41st Wing of Sigonella (SR), and the “Extraction Forces” and STOS (Tactical Support for Special Operations) personnel, in addition to the SA 330 helicopters. Puma Romanians. The use of the latter has allowed to strengthen cooperation between NATO nations, improving operational integration and the level of coordination between different platforms.
Two weeks of complex operations, in which the technical and operational preparation of the participants was put to the test in increasingly realistic and challenging scenarios. The exercise required meticulous planning, coordination and analysis, with a gradual progression of difficulty to test the interoperability between different assets and the effectiveness of the procedures adopted. Each scenario in fact included diversified situations, from the simulated ejection of a military pilot to the separation of a special forces team, to the recovery of civilians missing in a hostile scenario to test the operational readiness and decision-making capacity of the crews.
During the missions, recovery operations were also simulated in the presence of ground and air threats, with the use of the so-called Red Forces (opposition units) and simulated anti-aircraft defenses, capable of countering the Blue Forces, responsible for ensuring the recovery of isolated personnel (Isolated Person – ISOP).
Of particular importance is the role of the Eurofighters Typhoon, used as escort to the helicopters during the recovery phases and for the location of isolated personnel. The integration between fixed and rotary wing assets required a high level of coordination to ensure the protection of the helicopters flying at low altitude, while ensuring the maintenance of the Situational Awareness and threat mitigation.
" personnel recovery week 25 – 01 has given us the opportunity to train all the components involved in this type of mission, perfecting the interaction between the Air Force departments and improving the national and NATO operational capacity", declared Colonel Antonino Massara, commander of the 36th Fighter Wing.
A concept also reiterated by Colonel Salvatore Florio, commander of the 9th wing of Grazzanise, who underlined how “Interagency training allows us to consolidate basic skills and develop greater operational synergy with allied nations, an essential element for dealing with increasingly complex and dynamic scenarios”.
The 36th Fighter Wing of Gioia del Colle (BA) is under the command of the Combat Forces Command (CFC) of Milan, whose assigned mission is to acquire and maintain the operational readiness of all air defense, attack and reconnaissance bodies, ensuring the operational efficiency of weapon systems, vehicles and materials, as well as the training of personnel and the constant updating and optimization of operational procedures. The CFC is under the command of the Air Squad Command - 1st Air Region of Milan, which exercises the responsibilities in terms of training, preparation and operational readiness of its units, so that they acquire and maintain the expected levels of operational readiness. The 36th Fighter Wing is one of the 5 wings of the Air Force that ensure the National Air Defense and the service of Quick Reaction Alert of NATO.
The 9th Wing of Grazzanise, with its HH-101A flight assets and STOS (Tactical Support for Special Operations) operators carries out Special Air Operations as well as the search and recovery of high value personnel in hostile territory (Personnel Recovery – PR), providing air support to surface forces and intervening, in the presence of injuries, with emergency medical evacuation activities. It is also home to the SERE center for advanced training in survival, evasion, resistance and exfiltration offered to all Air Force personnel deployed abroad. As military personnel in the service of the State, the task of the 9th Wing is precisely to contribute to the security of the country and the defense of vital national interests, protect human lives and be increasingly useful to the country. The unit also contributes to the security system of military deployments abroad, to peacekeeping and humanitarian relief operations, as well as to the implementation at national level of protection measures during major events or to maintain public order. The 9th Wing is directly dependent on the 1st Special Operations Air Brigade and reports, as high command, to the Air Squad Command – 1st Air Region of Milan.
