From Apr. 1, the aircraft taking part in the Spring Flag 2008 have been arriving in the two Deployable Operating Base (DOB) of the Exercise: Decimomannu is the DOB for the assets that have been assigned to the “coalition party”, while Trapani, in Sicily, is the DOB for all the forces of the “opfor party”, the opponents. This is the list of the partecipating aircraft:
Italian Air Force
4x F2000 4 St
2x F-16 ADF 5 St
5x TORNADO IDS 6 St
3x AB-212ICO 9 St
1x G-222 VS 14 St
2x HH-3F 15 St
5x AMX 32 and 51 St
4x TORNADO IDS 36 St
3x F2000 36 St
6x F-16 ADF 37 St
1x C130J 46 AB
6x TORNADO ECR 50 St
4x MB-339CD 61 St
3x SF-260EA
Italian Army
1x CH47 5° Reggimento “Antares”
2x A129 8° Reggimento “Rigel”
Italian Navy
3x AV-8B I GrupAer
Foreign aircraft
1x E3F FrAF
4x TORNADO ECR GAF
1x FALCON 20 FRAviation
5x F-16 HAF
2x E-3 NATO
4x F-18 SpAF
5x F-16 TuAF
1x KC-135 USAF
The deployment phase of the Ex. will finish on Apr. 4. The TuAF F-16 will arrive in Deci on Apr. 3.
The scenario of this year’s edition of the major Italian Ex. is obviously theoretical but inspired to all kind of events that already occurred or ar likely to occur in the future: a series of inputs have been created by the DIREX (Direction of the Ex) in order to spur the reaction of the participating units. Anyway, the general scenario has the shape of Peace Support Operations by a “Coalition of the willing” within an area of crisis. The air campaign will be managed by a JFACC (Joint Force Air Component Command) established within the Italian COFA (Comando Operativo Forze Aeree, Air Forces Operative Command) that by means of the DCAOC (Deployable Combined Air Operations Center), deployed to Bari-Palese airport will issue the Air Tasking Orders to both the coalition and opfor parties.
