Eurofighter Typhoon jets from the 4° Stormo in Grosseto, Italy hosted 11 F-16 jets from the Royal Danish Air Force Base in Skrydstrup in a joint exercise at Grosseto, home of the Italian Typhoons.

The joint exercise known as “Winter Hide 2011” saw the Royal Danish Air Force emerge out of hibernation with a team of eight operational fighters, three reserve planes, maintenance equipment, aircraft engineers, technicians of all kinds, pilots and forward air controllers, totalling some 100 people, to spend four weeks in Italy to enjoy better weather and exchange knowledge and experiences with their Italian colleagues.

The Danish F-16s operated in three slot missions a day to train in close air support (CAS) and air-to-air scenarios. With exercises taking place both day and night, the aircraft involved totalled in excess of 600 flying hours. In addition, the US Air Force F-15E jets of 494 FS deployed to Decimomannu, in Sardinia also joined the exercise.

The Royal Danish Air Force benefited from the stable weather conditions of Tuscany as well as from Grosseto’s location close to the sea and mountains, which provided the opportunity to train CAS and dogfight scenarios with the Italian Typhoons in different environments.

Major Hans Peter Bagger, Danish Air Force leader of the first of two operational detachments pointed out: “We all need to maintain our capabilities to constantly meet the demands NATO asks of us. Training in Italy allows us to do just that, and by replacing almost all people mid-term, the valuable training is distributed across as many people as possible.

Colonel Michele Morelli, commander of 4° Stormo, said: “this exercise has been a fantastic chance to check and consolidate the standard operational procedures that we have adopted for years in the NATO fighter environment, but also very useful to validate the Eurofighter operational tactics”.

For the Danish Air Force and for Italian Aeronautica Militare, the exercise is also valuable for technicians and for the mission planners who are able to exchange experiences and procedures.

The Danes were excited about the opportunity to fly against the Eurofighter Typhoon,  which they acknowledge has superior performance and engine power when compared to their updated F-16.

Source: Eurofighter press release