Present at the ceremony today the Lithuanian deputy defense minister, Marijus Velička, the mayor of the city of Šiauliai, Artūras Visockas, the representative of the Italian embassy in Vilnius dott. Romano Cancellara, the airliner general Maurizio Lodovisi, commander of the Air Force Air Squadron and col. Marco Bertoli, commander of the Italian Detachment.
From January to the present day, Italy has held the leadership of operations through an Air Force Task Force, composed of 1 fighter Eurofighter Typhoon, supported by 4 military specialists in maintenance, coordination and control of Air Defense.
The Italian government has decided, at the request of the local partners, to extend the Aeronautics participation to operations until the end of August, with the same assets, alongside the Norwegian colleagues.
In the 400 total hours of flight, the Typhoon has confirmed its reliability, despite the harsh weather: this is confirmed by the 30 Alpha Scramble [2] operated during the period by the Italian Air Force which guaranteed an active alarm service h. 24, for 7 days a week.
In addition to its operational activities, the TFA in Lithuania has conducted various initiatives in favor of the local community, in particular school groups and orphanages, and has received numerous visits by parliamentary delegations and military and civilian associations.
General Lodovisi in his speech underlined how the work done by the Task Force Air personnel in Lithuania was highly appreciated. The Air Force is engaged in various missions outside national borders where it carries out its task with dedication and passion. This mission in Lithuania is also a success from the operational point of view and the awards have not been missed. Thanks to the col. Bertoli and to all the personnel who contributed to the achievement of this important goal. "
'The numbers that characterized the work done daily by the staff - said col. Bertoli, commander of the TFA - show a great professionalism of the men and women of the Task Force, based on continuous and constant training at home. The operational activities in Lithuania took place in a complex and challenging environment but this allowed us to improve day by day. A sincere thanks to all the crew, technical and logistic personnel who have made it possible to achieve these excellent results'.
[1] Air Policing (AP) is a capacity NATO has endowed since the mid-fifties and consists of the integration into a single NATO air and missile defense system of their respective and similar national systems put into available from member countries. The activity of AP consists in the continuous surveillance and identification of all the violations to the integrity of the NATO airspace to which it is faced by taking the appropriate actions useful to counter them, such as the scramble. [2] operating activity consisting in taking off quickly a pair of fighter aircraft to intercept and identify an unknown aircraft that violates the airspace without the necessary authorizations.
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Source: Aeronautica Militare
