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NATO Tiger Meet 2011 – Cambrai – May 2011

David Cenciotti — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:35:25 +0000

Taking place between May 9 and 20 at Cambrai airbase, in northern France, NATO Tiger Meet (NTM11) has been attended by about 60 planes and helicopters belonging to the Austrian, Czech Republic, German, Hellenic, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Turkish, Swiss and Slovak air forces. From a simple meeting of flying units sharing a Tiger (or feline) emblem, the NTM has become a multi-national mid-size exercise offering a two-week program that includes all types of air-to-air and air-to-ground and a wide variety of support missions, comprising CSAR and large COMAOs.

Read the rest on my weblog: NATO Tiger Meet 2011: a real exercise with some interesting “hardware” rather than a gathering of friends

Trapani airbase – April 2011

David Cenciotti — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 08:45:08 +0000

I spent Apr. 12, 2011, (Day 25 of Odyssey Dawn/Unified Protector) at Trapani-Birgi, one of the most active forward operating bases for the Libyan crisis. The airbase is the operative headquarters of the Italian Air Force contingent, to be soon become a Task Group “Air” and put under the direct command of Col. Mauro Gabetta, Cdr of the 37° Stormo. The base permanently hosts the NATO Forward Operating Base and, since Odyssey Dawn began, the Task Force Libeccio, the air detachment of the Canadian Armed Forces deployed on Operation Mobile. The overall flying activity was pretty intense on Day 25 with several Tornado ECR and IDS missions since early morning, a CC-150 tanker sortie and 2 RAF VC-10s sorties plus the usual training activity of the local based 18° Gruppo with its F-16 ADFs. The Typhoons did not fly until the evening, most probably because scheduled for night CAPs. As the 37° Stormo PAO, Lt.Col. Di Battista explained: “there’s no fixed schedule since the operative activity depends on NATO taskings. There are days in which the flying activity is mainly during daylight and others when it is shifted towards night”. The base is operative on an H24 basis.

Read the rest of the article on my weblog: Operation Unified Protector (was Odyssey Dawn) explained (Day 25)

494th FS deployment to Decimomannu airbase – February 2011

David Cenciotti — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:30:38 +0000

On Jan. 20, 2011, 14 F-15Es belonging to the 48FW of the USAFE based at RAF Lakenheath deployed to Decimomannu airbase. During the deployment, that ended on Feb. 4 (even if 6 aircraft returned to the UK on Feb. 2), the Strike Eagles usually performed two daily waves, almost always launching up to 10 aircraft that flew A/G missions in the Capo Frasca range or A/A missions in the restricted areas located to the East of Sardinia. On Feb. 2, the Strike Eagles performed DACT (Dissimilar Air Combat Training) vs the Italian F-2000 Typhoons of the 4° Stormo, based in Grosseto. Deployed to Deci in those days were also 7 AV-8B+ Harrier of the I GrupAer of the Marina Militare (Italian Navy). The following pictures and those you can see on the main site at the address http://cencio4.wordpress.com/category/494fs-deci/ were taken by me and Giovanni Maduli on Feb. 1 and 2.

Winter Hide 2011 – RDAF deployment to Grosseto airbase – February 2011

David Cenciotti — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:19:00 +0000

On Jan. 17, 2011, 11 F-16s belonging to the Royal Danish Air Force deployed to Grosseto airbase, Italy, to undertake training operations with the local based Eurofighter Typhoon of the 4° Stormo of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF). Dubbed “Winter Hide 2011″ the deployment was planned to enable the Danish pilots to train in the mild Italian climate (since bad weather affects flying operations in Denmark during this season) until Feb. 11.
For more details about the deployment, please visit the main site at the following address: http://cencio4.wordpress.com/tag/winter-hide-2011/

Wittmund – home of the last GAF Phantoms – October 2010

David Cenciotti — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 12:30:53 +0000

Located in the northern part of Germany, Wittmundhafen (or Wittmund) is the homebase of the Jagdgeschwader 71 (JG71) equipped with the McDonnell Douglas F-4F Phantom. The unit, that made its last detachment in Decimomannu last Sept. (read: Ciao German Phantoms!) and is named “Richthofen” after the WWI German ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the “Red Baron”, is the last German wing equipped with the F-4s, since the Luftwaffe is in the process of replace the “Rhinos” with the Eurofighter Typhoon. Being scheduled for 2011 the withdrawal of the type from service, Giovanni Maduli went to Wittmund to report about the operations of the last German Phantoms.

Exercise Vega 2010 – Decimomannu – part 2

David Cenciotti — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 11:50:34 +0000

Part 1 available here.

Exercise Vega 2010 – Decimomannu – part 1

David Cenciotti — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:28:07 +0000

For all the articles dealing with the Exercise Vega 2010 in Decimomannu, I suggest you visiting the main site starting at the following address http://cencio4.wordpress.com/tag/vega-2010/ (scroll down to read all the related posts).

Part 2 available here.

Armed Forces Day 2010 (arrivals, exhibition and departures)

David Cenciotti — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 15:36:55 +0000

Here’s the full collection of pictures taken by Giovanni Maduli and me of the arrivals, exhibition and departures of helicopters for the celebrations of the Italian Armed Forces Day.

Rivolto airshow, 11-12/09/10

David Cenciotti — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 22:10:28 +0000

Below are the images of the airshow (and rehearsals) that was held in Rivolto for the 50th Anniversary of the Frecce Tricolori display team. For a description of the two day event please visit the main site at the following address: http://cencio4.wordpress.com/tag/50th-anniversary-frecce-tricolori/.

German Phantoms and Italian Typhoons in Decimomannu – 31.08.10 – 02.09.10

David Cenciotti — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:28:53 +0000

A few weeks ago, in a previous post published on my blog I reported about the last GAF F-4s detachment in Decimomannu airbase, Italy. Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 2, the photoreporter Giovanni Maduli went again
in Sardinia, to take some pictures of both the JG71 Phantoms and ItAF Eurofighter Typhoon deployed over there to undertake air-to-air training activities.
Noteworthy, among the Italian F-2000s there were also some examples sporting the new 10° Gruppo markings. On Jul. 1, the 10° Gruppo, equipped with the leased F-16 ADF, moved from the Trapani-based 37° Stormo, to Gioia del Colle, joining the 12° Gruppo, within the 36° Stormo.
Here’s the full selection of pictures taken by Maduli in Decimomannu from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, 2010.

Festa Esercito 06.05.10 – Tor di Quinto – rehearsals

David Cenciotti — Sun, 09 May 2010 22:31:56 +0000

On May 6, 2010, the Esercito Italiano (EI, Italian Army) celebrated its 149th Anniversary at Rome with a ceremony at Tor di Quinto (TdQ) military hippodrome. For the ceremony, that was attended by many civil and military authorities, AB.412, AB.205, NH-90, A-129, A-109 and CH-47 helicopters deployed to Guidonia and Urbe performed a tactical event at TdQ whose rehearsals were performed on both May 3, 4 and 5 (and was not performed on May 6, most probably because of the bad weather). The following pictures were taken by Giovanni Maduli during the rehearsals.

USS Nimitz – North Arabian Sea – October 2009

David Cenciotti — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:53:25 +0000

Between Oct. 19 and 20, 2009, I had the possibility to spend some 25 hours on board the USS Nimitz nuclear supercarrier. I went to Manama, Bahrain, and after a long flight in a C-2 of the VRC-30 “Providers” I trapped on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier that was sailing “somewhere” in the Indian Ocean. For more information and pictures I suggest you visiting the following link: http://cencio4.wordpress.com/tag/uss-nimitz/

Decimomannu – Winter 2010 activity

David Cenciotti — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:44:05 +0000

87th Anniversary of the ItAF – Pratica di Mare – 26.03.10

David Cenciotti — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:05:36 +0000

“This is not the time to stand still. This is the time to build, with flexible far-sightedness, the new Air Force’s architecture so that it is integrated and not absorbed in the new joint context that has a strong European and International connotation”: these were some of the words that Gen. Giuseppe Bernardis, Chief of Staff of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF) addressed to President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano in his speech during the ceremony for the 87th Anniversary of the ItAF, held on Mar. 26, 2010, at Pratica di Mare airbase. Bernardis explained that over the past ten years the size of the Air Force has been cut in half in terms of personnel and material but it has not lost its capabilities or efficiency, as the ItAF has invested and continue to invest in both the quality of the equipment and, above all, in the training of the personnel.

The rest of the article can be read here:

http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/itaf-87th-anniversary-pratica-di-mare-26-03-10/

50th Anniversary AWTI – Decimomannu – 25.09.09

David Cenciotti — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:58:26 +0000

On Sept. 25, Decimomannu airbase in Sardinia, Italy, hosted the 50th Anniversary of the AWTI (Air Weapons Training Installation) that was established the NATO partnership of Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Canada. The AWTI exploits an ACMI (Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation) range where air-to-air missions and DACT (Dissimilar Air Combat Training) are remotely monitored and recorded, and an air-to-ground bombing range at Capo Frasca, where pilots can train dropping both dumb and smart weaponry. Currently, the base is mainly used by the aircraft belonging to the Italian and German Air Force that renewed the agreement for another 3 years even if it often hosts aircraft of other air forces involved in training campaigns and multinational exercises. The following pictures (including a sort of GAF F-4 walkaround) were taken by Giovanni Maduli on Sept. 24 (rehearsals) and Sept. 25.