NATO air forces have gathered in Italy for Exercise Falcon Strike 2025, a large-scale multinational air combat exercise hosted by the Italian Air Force and aimed at strengthening Allied readiness and interoperability, NATO stated.
Running from 3 to 14 November, the exercise is centred at Amendola Air Base, home of Italy’s 32nd Wing and one of its main F-35 operating hubs. More than 1,000 personnel and over 50 aircraft from Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Greece are taking part. Several other Italian bases are supporting the event to enable large-scale joint operations across air, land, and maritime domains.
According to NATO, Falcon Strike 2025 supports Allied Air Command’s broader objectives for deterrence and defence, advancing standardisation and coordination between fourth and fifth-generation aircraft. Italy’s geographic position in the Mediterranean makes it a key operational centre for the Alliance, and exercises of this scale reinforce the readiness and agility of NATO air forces under the collective defence framework.
The exercise focuses on integrating aircraft from different generations into cohesive formations while developing tactics for modern air combat. Participants are also training in Agile Combat Employment, a concept that tests NATO’s ability to deploy quickly and operate from dispersed locations while maintaining combat effectiveness.
A major feature of Falcon Strike 2025 is the use of Live, Virtual and Constructive training environments at Sardinia’s Salto di Quirra Joint Training Range. The approach combines live flying with digital simulations and data-linked virtual scenarios that replicate complex threats, following the principle of “train as we fight.”
The Italian Air Force described Falcon Strike 2025 as “a leap into the future,” highlighting its role in advancing fifth-generation integration and reinforcing NATO’s unity and defensive strength. NATO stated that the exercise reaffirms the Alliance’s commitment to peace, stability, and collective defence across the Euro-Atlantic region.
The final formal exercise for CSG25, then home bound for Xmas. A final run ashore is likely, but I presume Gibraltar is no go for fear of upsetting Spain. Since the recent furtive handover of the border zone and all Customs & Immigration controls to Spain, that Crown colony now exists entirely at the sufferance of Spain who could take over the whole place in a hour. Arguably it was only two hours even before the handover, but at least there would have been embarrassing TV coverage of Spanish Police and Army smashing through the previously British manned border checkpoints.