Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons have made their first appearance at one of the world’s best-known military exercises.
Exercise Red Flag, at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, is a realistic combat training exercise involving the air, space and cyber forces of the United States and its allies.
Eight Italian Eurofighter Typhoons, from the 4th, 36th and 37th Fighter Wings in Grosseto, made their inaugural appearance at the Base, led by Detachment Commander Marco Bertoli. They are taking part in a series of exercises along with 76 other aircraft exploring different combat scenarios, utilising a military training area with more than 15,000 square miles of airspace.
The Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) is the U.S. Air Force’s premiere military training area and the Exercise will provide 1,900 possible targets, realistic threat systems, and an opposing enemy force that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world. Nellis AFB and the NTTR are the home of a simulated battlefield, providing combat air forces with the ability to train to fight together in a peacetime environment, and to survive and win together.
The responsibility for executing Red Flag lies with the 414th Combat Training Squadron. Aircraft depart Nellis twice a day and may remain in the air for up to five hours.
The Italian Eurofighter deployment to Red Flag is just one of a series of deployments all around the world for the Eurofighter Typhoon community, which have involved the multi-role swing role combat aircraft recently. Others include:
- Deployment of six Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons to Cyprus on counter Daesh operations
- Eurofighter Typhoons from all four core nations, the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain for the Baltic Air Policing mission
- Deployment of RAF Eurofighter Typhoons on multi-aircraft interoperability exercise in the United Arab Emirates
- Deployment of eight German Eurofighter Typhoons to Alaska on a previous Red Flag exercise
BAe press release
