In this moment of national emergency, the air force surveillance and defense service by the Air Force does not stop. Two Eurofighter fighters of the 4th Wing of Grosseto intervened to intercept an Airbus 320 Easyjet taken off from England and bound for Malta, which had lost radio contact with civil air traffic bodies during the overflight of the national airspace.
The two fighters, at the time of the request for intervention, were already flying for a training mission. The order to remodel the mission from training to real was given by the CAOC (Combined Air Operation Center) of Torrejon in Spain, a NATO body responsible for the area, in coordination with the Air Operations Command (COA) of Poggio Renatico.
The "hunting guide" staff of the 11th DAMI Group of Poggio Renatico provided the pilots of the two Eurofighters in flight with the coordinates and information necessary to reach the civil aircraft and carry out the envisaged "visual identification" (VID) procedure, to ensure that there were no emergency conditions. After the restoration of radio communications, the two fighters returned to the Maremma air base.
Four are the Flocks equipped with Eurofighter assets, which the Air Force uses for the Air Defense service: the 4th Wing of Grosseto, the 36th Wing of Gioia del Colle, the 37th Wing of Trapani, the 51st Wing of Istrana. Since March 2018, the F35 aircraft of the 32nd Wing of Amendola have also been integrated into the Air Defense system, which contribute, with specific operational capabilities and latest generation technology, to the defense of Italian skies and which were the first airplanes to 5th generation to have been employed by NATO to safeguard the Alliance's airspace in an Air Policing operation.
The complex defense system through which the Air Force ensures, without interruption, the surveillance of the national airspace is integrated, even in peacetime, with that of the other countries belonging to NATO. The immediate take-off order - in technical jargon "scramble" - or as in this case of intervention of aircraft already in flight, is issued by the CAOC (Combined Air Operation Center) of Torrejon (Spain), the NATO body responsible for airspace surveillance service in the area, which integrates the surveillance and control capabilities of the 11th DAMI group and 22nd radar group.
The national Air Operation Center (AOC) performs fundamental tasks in the organization of the air defense service and constantly monitors the correct functioning of the device. In the event of a non-military threat to Italian airspace, the IT-AOC resumes command of the intercepting aircraft entrusted to NATO, for the subsequent contrast action. This happens, for example, when a civil aircraft in transit in the national airspace shows an anomalous conduct and, therefore, potentially dangerous for safety, or if it needs air support for technical problems that compromise flight safety, as in the case today, due to the loss of radio communications.