Combat Aircraft from Israel, UAE, Greece, Italy, UK and U.S. Take Part in Ex. “INIOCHOS 2018”

From Greece with love.

Exercise “INIOCHOS” is a yearly medium-scale exercise hosted by the Hellenic Air Force at the facilities of the Air Tactics Center at Andravida Air Base, located in the Northwest Peloponnese, Greece.

The “layout” of the exercise is quite standard: two weeks in length (including deployment and re-deployment of the assets), the exercise scenario adopts a Single Base Concept with air operation launched from an MOB (Main Operating Base). It’s a so-called Invitex, meaning that the drills is organized and run by the HAF but also attended by invited nations aircraft as well. In order to make the training realistic, the participating units “are exposed to an intensive battle rhythm with realistic attrition rates and challenging scenarios that include multiple modern threats and real time live injects tailored to produce the fog of war and the friction effect (per Clausewitz) which is expected to dominate the modern battlefield and test both the physical and psychological endurance of the modern fighter.”

Israeli Air Force F-16C taking off during Iniochos 2018 media day.

The HFWS (Hellenic Fighter Weapons School) oversees the missions from scenario planning to debriefing and makes certain that they cover the full spectrum of missions currently performed by the HAF and allied nations, including

– Air operations versus Integrated Air Defense System (IADS)
– Offensive Counter Air / Airfield Attack
– Air Interdiction / Special Targets (bridges, power stations, vehicles, etc.).
– Anti Surface Warfare
– Slow Mover Protection (SLOMO)
– Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR).
– Dynamic Targeting (DT) / Strike Coordination and Reconnaissance (SCAR) / Close Air Support (CAS) / Time Sensitive Targets (TST).
– High Value Airborne Asset (HVAA) Protect/Attack

One of the Italian Air Force Tornado IDS from Ghedi.

This year’s edition of “Iniochos” was attended by a wide variety of combat aircraft from 6 nations (including Greece). Among them, 6x Mirage 2000-9EAD/DAD belonging to the 71 Sqn  of the UAE AF from Al Dhafra; 4x F-16C “Barak” with 117 Sqn Israeli AF from Ramat David; 5x Tornado from the 6th Stormo, Italian Air Force, based in Ghedi; 4x Typhoon FGR4 from 3 Sqn from RAF Coningsby; 13x F-15E Strike Eagle from 492FS from RAF Lakenheath as well as some +30x F-16, 4x F-4E, 4x Mirage 2000 and 1x EMB-145H AEW&C belonging to various squadrons of the HAF.

HAF Mirage 2000 during taking off at dusk.

In this post you can find some photographs taken at Andravida by The Aviationist’s contributors Claudio Tramontin and Simone Marcato.

RAF Typhoon FGR4
UAE AF Mirage 2000-9
Close-up view of a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle.
One of the four F-4E Phantom belonging to 338 Mira.
HAF F-16D

Image credit: Claudio Tramontin, Simone Marcato

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.