On 19 and 20 January, in a vast area of operations between Puglia and Calabria, under the direction of the Aerospace Operations Command of the Air Force, the national and inter-force exercise COMAO 22-01 which saw the involvement of personnel and vehicles of the Italian Army and the Navy and the Air Force.
The training event had as its main objective the interaction of the three Armed Forces in the conduct of several missions at the same time, i.e. air, sea and land operations with the use of 3rd, 4th and 5th generation aircraft, support aircraft with tasks of Command and Control (C2), air to air refueling, transport of air-launched troops and naval units.
In particular, in a highly realistic complex scenario, the meticulous planning activities, aimed at consolidating the integration and interoperability between the various assets used and at evaluating the operational plans and tactics used, have strengthened the mutual support between the various Forces employed.
Among the operations carried out, particularly significant was the launch of the paratroopers of the 9th "Col Moschin" assault regiment of the Italian Army from a C-27J of the 46th air brigade, escorted by the F-35A aircraft of the 32nd wing which also played the role of Suppression Enemy Air Defense (SEAD).
The activity of Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) performed by the aircraft Predator MQ-9, supplied to the 32nd wing, which, together with the aircraft Tornado of the 6th flock, ai Euro Fighter of the 4th wing and the AV-8B Harrier of the Navy, carried out the so-called Digital Close Air Support (D-CAS), that is the support to the troops on the ground in the total absence of radio communications, in close contact with the Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) of the 16th wing of the Air Force and those of the Italian Army and the Navy.
For the success of the exercise, other flocks of the Air Force that have equipped the aircraft also provided a fundamental contribution Euro Fighter, that is the 36th of Gioia del Colle, the 37th of Trapani and the 51st of Istrana and the 14th Wing that took part in the training event with a KC-767 aircraft Tanker for in-flight refueling and a Gulfstream G-550 CAEW (Conformal Airborne Early Warning) with Command and Control, in order to provide decision makers with a Situational Awareness updated in real time, an indispensable factor of aerospace power.
The exercise represented an important opportunity to consolidate inter-force cooperation, increasingly frequent and necessary both nationally and internationally, and to consolidate and standardize particular technical and operational procedures.
