On Wednesday 10 April, at 16pm local time, the last Air Force aircraft that will take part in the next edition of the Red Flag Alaska 24-1, scheduled from 18 April to 3 May 2024, with the aim of offering the possibility of practicing complex air missions, characterized by a high level of difficulty, with the presence of fourth and fifth generation air-to-air threats, in one training scenario that allows you to make the most of the potential of the existing assets and to replicate real missions.
At this edition of the Red Flag Alaska three different nations participate: Italy and the United States with air and ground assets (JTAC team - Joint Terminal Attack Controller) and the Netherlands with only JTAC assets for a total of more than one hundred military aircraft and over one thousand military aircraft.
For the Italian component, six F-2000s from the 4th (Grosseto), the 36th (Gioia del Colle), the 37th (Trapani) and the 51st wing (Istrana), six F-35As from the 6th ( Ghedi) and from the 32nd wing (Amendola), a G-550 CAEW and a KC-767A of the 14th wing of Pratica di Mare with specific training objectives for each operational line.
The Air Force then redeployed a JTAC cell of the 17th Wing of the Air Force which will operate together with the US Army as part of the Distant Frontier, further exercise organized alongside the Red Flag and began as early as last April 4th.
La Red Flag Alaska 24-1 it is an extremely realistic exercise in which pilots consolidate the capabilities of using the weapon systems supplied and the validity of their respective tactics, through the organization and coordination of "packages" made up of a large number of aircraft (so-called Large Force Employment), while strengthening the ability to operate jointly with other departments, both of the Armed Forces and of other nations, in modern operational scenarios, characterized by high unpredictability and complexity and in a geographical area far from the homeland characterized by a particularly rigid.
For these reasons, it is one of the most important training events of 2024 for the Italian Air Force, also in light of the current commitments of the Armed Forces in operational theaters abroad, to train to operate in a perfectly integrated way with other multinational air assets. currently employed in real operations.
The redeployment (deployment) just completed of personnel and aircraft over 8.000 km as the crow flies from home, approximately 13.500 following the transfer route via the Central Atlantic, was yet another opportunity to exercise the national capacity for rapid projection from aerospace, as a concrete expression of the Armed Force's ability to deploy forces, even in non-elementary contingents (Large Force Package), on a scale that is no longer just regional, without geographical limits.
Significant for this purpose also with the support of the C-130Js of the 46th air brigade of Pisa, which guaranteed the role of Search and Rescue ocean during the flight of the participating assets and the other KC-767A aircraft of the 14th wing of Pratica di Mare which, in addition to ensuring a high loading and transport capacity of personnel and materials, carried out in-flight refueling of the air assets -tactical during the flight.
