Typhoon Flag 2023: Italian Eurofighter Exercise
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“Typhoon Flag 23”, Italian Air Force primary exercise for the Eurofighter line in 2023, concluded on September 8th, 2023, after two weeks of intensive training at the 4th Wing in Grosseto. This year’s exercise brought together aircraft and personnel from the four Eurofighter bases: the 4th Wing, the 36th Wing, the 37th Wing and the 51st Wing.
This year marks the second edition of the exercise, with the first one having taken place at the 36th Wing in July 2022. The Weapons Instructors, drawing from their experience gained during Typhoon Flag 2022, played a fundamental role in ensuring the exercise’s effectiveness by imparting tactics and techniques for deploying various weapon systems to the younger pilots.
The primary objective of this year’s edition was, as a matter of fact, to conduct advanced pilot training within complex operational scenarios while also simulating the use of the MBDA Meteor missile.
Over the course of fifteen days, a wide range of mission types was executed, ranging from Defensive Counter Air (DCA), Offensive Counter Air (OCA) to Swing Role operations, spanning areas over the Tyrrhenian Sea and central Italy.
Another vital aspect of the exercise, as emphasized during the exercise’s media conference, is standardization, especially in operational contexts such as the ongoing NATO Air Policing and Kuwait missions. These missions involve the presence and seamless operation of assets from Wings assigned to the Eurofighter. The Typhoon Flag exercise serves as a crucial opportunity to standardize operational and maintenance procedures across various units.
We attended the exercise’s media day and observed the morning sortie as well as the afternoon one. During both, aircraft from the four participating wings executed various formation flybys.
