Two Eurofighter fighters from the 36 ° Stormo of the Italian Air Force, in NATO alarm service, took to the air this morning from the Gioia del Colle air base (BA) to intercept an aircraft of the German airline TUI Fly flying over the skies of Montenegro, headed to Hurghada (Egypt), which had lost radio contact with air traffic control agencies (ATC).
The immediate take-off order - in technical "scramble" jargon - was given by the CAOC (Combined Air Operation Center) of Torrejon in Spain, a NATO body responsible for the area, in coordination with the Poggio Renatico Air Operations Command (COA) and the Armed Forces bodies appointed to oversee national and NATO airspace.
The "hunting guide" staff of the 22 ° Licola Radar Group provided the Eurofighter pilots in flight with the information necessary to intercept the aircraft that was about to affect the airspace of Montenegro and Albania, countries of the Atlantic Alliance whose defense aerial is daily assured by Italy, with the operational assets of the Air Force, and by Greece.
Once in the area concerned, the two interceptor fighters identified the civil aircraft for the planned VId (Visual Identification) and once restored the radio communication returned to the base.
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The complex defense system by which the Air Force ensures the surveillance of the national airspace without interruption is integrated, even in times of peace, with that of the other countries belonging to NATO.
The alert chain for this type of event and for airspace violations provides in fact that the order of immediate intervention of the fighters ("scramble") is given by the CAOC (Combined Air Operation Center) of Torrejon (Spain), the NATO body responsible for the airspace surveillance service in the area, whose national counterpart is the Poggio Renatico Air Operation Center.
There are three Eurofighter Storms, which the Aeronautica Militare uses for the Air Defense service: the 4 ° Stormo of Grosseto, the 36 ° Stormo of Gioia del Colle and the 37 ° Stormo of Trapani, which feed in turn , as needed, also a temporary cell at the base of the 51 ° Stormo of Istrana.
The chain also includes the 11 ° DAMI Group (Airborne Integrated Missile Defense) of Poggio Renatico (FE) and the 22 ° Radar Group of Licola (NA), which have the task of leading the Air Defense assets by providing the necessary information to intercept potential air threats. The airspace monitoring activity is carried out by specialized and trained personnel, who have the qualification of Surveillance Controller or Interception Controller.
The national Air Operation Center carries out fundamental tasks in the organization of the air defense service and constantly supervises the correct functioning of the device. If there is a non-military threat to the Italian airspace, the IT-AOC resumes the command of the intercepting aircraft entrusted to NATO, for the subsequent enforcement action. This occurs when a civil aircraft transiting through the national airspace shows an anomalous conduct and, therefore, potentially dangerous for safety, or if it requires air support for technical problems that compromise the safety of the flight, as in today's case, due to the loss of radio communications.
In the 2017, with the entry into Montenegro's Atlantic Alliance, that country's airspace has become an integral part of the Euro-Atlantic space and, as such, has been included in NATO's air defense and missile defense system. This system also includes the activity of Air Policing, which consists of continuous aerial surveillance aimed at ensuring the integrity and security of NATO airspace. Like other countries of the Atlantic Alliance (Slovenia, Albania, the Baltic Republics, Iceland) Montenegro does not have an air force capable of providing for the surveillance of its airspace and has therefore requested NATO intervention.
Italy guarantees the support thanks to the use of 2 Eurofighter aircraft that will be in operational readiness of their membership bases, ready to take action "scramble" in case of need.
The "scramble" is the operational activity consisting in quickly activating a pair of fighter aircraft in order to intercept and identify an unknown aircraft that violates the Alliance's airspace, or does not properly identify with air traffic control , in order to guarantee the safety of the skies from any possible and / or potential threat.
The Air Policing (AP) is a capacity that NATO has endowed since the mid-fifties and consists in the integration in a single NATO air and missile defense system of the respective and similar national systems made available by the NATO member countries. The activity of Air Policing is conducted since the time of peace and consists in the continuous surveillance and identification of all the violations of the integrity of the NATO airspace to which it is faced by taking the appropriate actions useful to counter them, such as the rapid take-off of interceptor fighter aircraft, the so-called scramble.
Italy continuously participates in the Interim Air Policing of Slovenia from the 2004, of Albania from the 2009 and of Montenegro from the 2018 alternating in this service with Greece and Hungary.