The Italian Air Force say it has completed its mission executing NATO’s Iceland safeguarding deployment.
In an official ceremony held at Keflavik Air Base, Iceland, the Italian Air Force detachment concluded its mission after four weeks providing NATO intercept capabilities to meet Icelandic peacetime preparedness needs.
“For the first time ever, a 5th generation fighter aircraft, the F-35, was employed in a NATO operation, showcasing Italy’s commitment to contributing to Alliance missions and to integrating modern aircraft in Allied operational arrangements.
In the beginning of October, the detachment underwent certification by a team of NATO evaluators from the Combined Air Operations Centre Uedem, Germany, established Full Operational Capability for the mission and provided interceptors were on permanent standby to work with Icelandic and NATO Air Surveillance and Control System units.
Six F-35 fighter aircraft and approximately 130 men and women of the Italian Air Force were deployed at the Icelandic Coast Guard Air Base of Keflavik for NATO’s peacetime Air Policing Mission in Iceland.”
During this time they conducted joint training with the Icelandic Coast Guard and the Danish Navy among other practising slow mover interception procedures.
“The participation of the F-35s from 32nd Fighter Wing at Amendola has been an opportunity that allowed the Italian Air Force to test not only the operational capabilities of the aircraft, but also deployment, logistics and sustainability procedures in a special operational, climatic and environmental context “far” from our home base,” said the Detachment Commander, Colonel Stefano Spreafico.
“We flew about twenty training scrambles and some 150 flying hours with almost 100 percent efficiency confirming the great reliability of the F-35 plane,” he added. “It also highlighted the excellent professionalism achieved by the whole maintenance and logistics crews, who even in adverse weather conditions have always been operating at their peak,” he said.
Just a question. Does Iceland still owe the UK billions of £ after their banks collapsed. Anyone know?
Think all the debt was payed off when the Icelandic government forced the banks that hadn’t paid into liquidation
They also actually prosecuted people in the industry there who created the mess. Strange, really, because as we know the whole crisis throughout the world was started by socialist overspending in the UK. Thank god for austerity. The UK forces have benefited so much from the ‘policy’ !
I wonder when we’ll see the first Italian F35Bs emabarked on QE/PoW?