From 12th to 26th of November the 36° Stormo / 36th Fighter Wing of Italian Air Force hosted exercise Gioia Falcon at its homebase in Gioia del Colle, an international live-fly training exercise with the Royal Netherlands Air Force called Gioia Falcon.
Royal Netherlands Air Force deployed twelve F-16AM/BM (with the special tail to commemorate the 70years of 312th Squadron) and about 150 people from 312th squadron “Bonzo”, normally based at Volkel AB.
It was probably one of the last – if not the last – chance to see Dutch Fighting Falcons train in Italy, as their retirement is scheduled for 2024/2025 when the Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lighting II reaches Full Operational Capability. The 312th Squadron is the last one equipped with F-16s used on QRA mission and still have the prerogative of the nuclear attack with the B61 bombs.
During the two weeks the training activity was intense: on average there were two daily missions, each of the two weeks that make up the 8-aircraft per mission, for a total of about 240 flight hours was flown.
Different types of aircraft were involved in Gioia Falcon exercise, including Eurofighters, F-35s and HH-139A helicopters from the Italian Air Force and F-16s from the Royal Netherlands Air Force, from the 312th Squadron based at Volkel Airbase. NATO’s Deployable Air Command and Control Centre based at Poggio Renatico, Italy carried out the exercise’s command and control. The Italian G550 CAEW and NATO E-3A airborne early warning aircraft supported exercise participants providing enhanced situational awareness to crews and commanders.
“Here at the 312 squadron we have many young pilots and therefore we need to let them gain experience in contexts different than everyday ones and to do this we normally participate in large international exercises like the Red Flags or the Tiger Meet but unfortunately in the last two years we have been limited in travel to some countries by the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic”, explains one of the Dutch pilots.
“Every day we fly multiple missions and can train in all kinds of missions we want as we can fly both over sea or land, both day and night.Also based on the training needs of each pilot, sometimes we fly alone and sometimes with the Eurofighter Typhoons of the two local flying groups, both as blue and red forces doing DACT, or CAS in favor of JTAC teams on the ground, in air superiority missions or simulating the Offensive counter-air (OCA) where we open the way to the bombers engaged in the ground attack”.
The 36th Stormo, in addition to providing logistical support by providing aprons, a hangar for the maintenance of the F-16s, rooms for briefing / debriefing, personnel facilities as well as ACMI equipment for the final evaluation of the missions, actively participated in the exercise with the Eurofighters Typhoon both of the X and XII fighter groups as explained by one of the pilots of the XII group: “Of course, in addition to being rewarding for our Dutch colleagues, the Gioia Falcon has a significant return to training for us too.
In addition to the Eurofighters of the 36th Stormo, we have also integrated the F-35As of the 32th Stormo and the G550 CAEW of the 14th Stormo during the various missions – which they operated respectively from Amendola and Pratica di Mare – as well as the regional command and control centers on the ground.
Day after day, always different scenarios are simulated during Gioia Falcon, taking into account the results obtained from the missions previously flown and generally with increasing difficulty.
We generally fly over the Ionian Sea and Calabria where we have large air spaces reserved for training, dividing these areas of operations into “red” and “blue” areas and where we can maneuver from 0 to 60,000 feet, even flying very complex missions such as COMAO”.
The author would thanks Aeronautica Militare Italiana for the opportunity, SMA Public Information Office and the personnel of the 36° Stormo of Gioia del Colle, particularly Ten. F.Mallardi.