After over 40 days of activity, marked by over 270 sorties and over 350 hours of flight, both day and night, on Friday 16 August 2024, the aircraft and the majority of the Italian contingent engaged in Indo-Pacific Air Campaign 2024 they returned to their homeland. The long return journey began in Japan, at the end of the Rising Sun 2024, and, after stopping in the Philippines, Malaysia, the Maldives and Qatar, it ended in the various bases of origin of the personnel and aircraft: the 4th, 36th, 37th and 51st wing for The Euro Fighter, the 6th and 32nd wings for the F-35s, the 14th wings for the KC-767A and the E-550 CAEW and the 46th air brigade for the C-130Js.
The Air Force's air campaign in the Indo-Pacific, which began on 30 June 2024, saw the participation of the Armed Forces in the international exercise Pitch black 24 in Australia, from 12 July to 2 August 2024, and to Rising Sun 2024, from 6 to 9 August 2024, together with the Japan Air Self Defense Force.
In addition to the objectives of the exercises, the use on the eastern side of the globe made it possible to train the expeditionary technical-logistic capabilities of the Air Force, i.e. the ability to deploy a Large Force Package (LFP) and demonstrate the ability to operate by producing significant effects in a short time and long distance from HomeBase, to protect national interests wherever they may be.
The families and colleagues of the soldiers who returned to Italy after training over 13.000 km away welcomed the crews in each wing. The respective commanders thanked their personnel involved in the two exercises, highlighting the precious contribution provided in the two training contexts and also underlining the commitment of the personnel who supported the operational activities from the respective air bases.
The 4th, 36th, 37th and 51st wings contributed to the training activity with the Euro Fighter F-2000A Typhoon of the air defense, the pilots and the technical and support staff for the training activities, the latter a fundamental commitment also in the complex phases of redeployment of the contingent and the aircraft. In particular, several day and night training missions were carried out Air Interdiction e Defensive Counter Air. The Indo-Pacific Air Campaign he also set a small record for the Euro Fighter Italians who, before la Rising Sun, they had never flown so far east in the world.
The 32nd and 6th wings have instead made the F-35A and B omnirole aircraft available Lightning II who trained, during the entire air campaign, in an integrated manner with 4th and 5th generation aircraft, fully exploiting the experiences acquired in the numerous operations Air Policing of NATO and in the many international exercises, in particular the Falcon Strike , Red Flag. The Air Force's training commitment in the Indo-Pacific continues for the next few months with two F-35Bs on board the aircraft carrier Cavour of the Navy, to continue the development of the national inter-force capability of projection from the sea with 5th generation aircraft.
The entire tanker fleet of the Air Force allowed the transfer of fighters Euro Fighter and F-35s in Australia first and then Japan, supervised by the CAEW, which thanks to the capacity Satcom (Satellite Communication), allowed the connection real-time with the chain of command in Italy. CAEW also contributed to the battle management command and control in numerous training sorties characterized by complex scenarios during the two international exercises. One of the KC-767A was deployed for the entire period at the bases of Amberly (Australia) and Misawa (Japan), from where it carried out in-flight refueling operations for the assets fighter.
With the return flight from Japan, the contribution of the 46th Pisa air brigade in support of the exercises also ended Pitch black 2024 e Rising Sun 2024, both for transport activities and for the peculiar Oceanic SAR activity, demonstrating the great flexibility of use of the C-130J aircraft and the very high preparation of the crews and specialists capable of preparing the different configurations very quickly, adapting to the different scenarios operational.
even the technical support department for Electronic Warfare (Re.STOGE) participated in the Indo-Pacific air campaign, ensuring the processing of Mission Data functional to the use of the F-2000 and F-35 assets. The executive phase saw the participation of analyst personnel Electronic Warfare to support the structures combat air ed on-board operators responsible for the use and enhancement of the skills of electronic surveillance of the CAEW.
