Yesterday morning, as part of the NATO Air Policing mission "Northern Lightning II", the Italian F-35A Lightning fighters deployed in Keflavik in Iceland took off. The quick takeoff order - in technical jargon Scramble - it was launched by the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) NATO based in UEDEM (Germany) and then managed by the Control & Reporting Center (CRC) in Keflavik (Iceland).
This is the first activation of the "Alpha scramble" for Italian interceptor fighters engaged in the surveillance operation of the northern European airspace.
Activation of F-35A aircraft in Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) was requested because some aircraft had entered unidentified and were heading to the Icelandic Airspace.
The first pair of Italian aircraft, which took off in a few minutes, reached the area of interest and, in accordance with NATO procedures, carried out the identification of the assets coming from the Norwegian sea.
A further pair of aircraft took off subsequently to protect the Airspace, carrying out patrolling activities in a circle, in a so-called Combat Air Patrol (CAP), in order to ensure rapid intervention if the assets already identified had affected the relevant Airspace.
Lo Scramble is the operational activity consisting in activating a pair of fighter aircraft in order to take off, intercept and identify one or more unknown planes in the shortest possible time to protect the integrity of the Alliance skies. In a few minutes the Air Force pilots then intercepted, identified and escorted the aircraft according to the procedures established by NATO.
