I took the following picture few years ago while flying a so-called SMI (Slow Mover Interception) exercise from Trapani airbase, in Sicily, Italy.
On board a slow moving Siai 208 single engine light plane, whose task was to simulate a renegade aircraft violating a No-Fly Zone guarded by F-16 fighter jets on CAP (Combat Air Patrol).
The two Italian Air Force F-16 ADFs, intercepted us at 3,000 feet over the sea between the northeast coast of Sicily and Favignana island, using their APG-66 radars, and escorted us outside the (fictional) NFZ.
Here’s what I saw from the right hand seat as the fighters (belonging to the Trapani-based 18° Gruppo) moved from the astern to the abeam position.
Small planes violate temporary restricted airspace quite often in the U.S. and they get intercepted by USAF F-16s and F-15s.
The Italian Air Force has recently returned its Libya Air War veteran F-16s leased from the U.S. The 18° Gruppo at Trapani, is about to get its first Eurofighter Typhoons.
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