The June 10 will start in Poggio Renatico (Ferrara) la Virtual Flag 2017, the first in a series of inter-force exercises that are part of Joint Stars 2017 (JS17), the largest training event of the year for Defense.
The JS17, which is organized by the Interforces Top Operational Command (IOC), will in fact consist of a network of exercises that will be conducted between June and October in various parts of the national territory and will be based on a single fictitious scenario characterized by an operation joint and multinational response to a crisis situation conducted under Italian leadership.
The JS17 will be divided into two main parts: the first will consist of the VF17, which will take place from 10 to 15 June and will be an exercise that, thanks to the use of high-tech simulation systems, allows personnel to be trained in planning and conducting air operations without the use of aircraft; the second part, scheduled between September and October 2017, will consist of the combination of various exercises mainly of the "LIVEX" type, ie with the use of real assets.
The VF17 is organized by the Italian Air Force and also sees the participation of personnel and assets of the IOC, the Italian Army and the Navy. It will take place mainly within a field structure existing at the Poggio Renatico Air Operations Command (Ferrara), to which various operational Departments of the participating Armed Forces will be connected.
The exercise represents an important step in the process of consolidating the national capacity, already certified at NATO level, to express an Air Component Command (Italian Joint Force Air Component - ITA JFAC) capable of planning, coordinating and controlling all aspects of an air campaign. In this edition, the ITA JFAC will train itself to fill the role of Joint Task Force, that is the Joint Command that coordinates all the military forces in the case of an operation with predominantly aerial connotation.
Two main new features of the VF17. First, the exercise will also include Command and Control training in the field of missile defense (Theater Ballistic Missile Defense - TBMD), with the tactical redevelopment of commands and operational units of the three Armed Forces: a SAMP / missile system T of the Italian Army, a naval Orizzonte / FREMM class naval unit (or, alternatively, the MARICENPROG Champion Center) and a radar sensor AN / TPS-77 of the Italian Air Force. Secondly, cyber threats will also be envisaged in the fictitious scenario, that is, attacks targeting the computer network used to conduct military operations.
Exercises such as VF17 constitute a valuable opportunity to integrate the capabilities of individual Armed Forces in the field of information gathering and sharing, an activity that has always played a crucial role in military operations, and today even more so in the era. of big data. Add to this that in VF17, thanks to the use of sophisticated Modeling & Simulation platforms, military personnel will have the opportunity to train themselves to operate in crisis scenarios in a way that is quite likely to what happens in a real operational activity, with the advantage of a lower impact on the territory and a significant containment of the necessary financial resources.
The JS17 is the first national exercise in which a full connection is made between training events of the individual Armed Forces, with significant benefits in various fields, such as sharing resources, promoting interoperability, developing capacities related to the operational use of forces and maintaining national connections.
