The redeployment of aircraft and support on Pantelleria is an important step in the development of the air expeditionary capability.
From 20 to 24 April, two F-35B aircraft of the 32nd Wing redeployed at the Pantelleria Airport Detachment, marking an important milestone in the integration process and in the development of the expeditionary capability of the weapon system.
The F-35B STOVL (Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing) aircraft used as a Forward Operating Base a base such as the Pantelleria one, belonging to the land-based capacitive segment, which by its nature is not fully suitable for flight operations of conventional take-off aircraft.
Training activities of this type make it possible to develop the NATO concept called Agile Combat Employment (ACE), an operational maneuver scheme designed to improve the resilience and survival of Aerospace Power, i.e. the ability to move from a base and regenerate one’s air operational capability in geographically dispersed places, and then continue to conduct the assigned mission, that is, to be resilient and able to generate operational readiness from the sky in all circumstances.
Compared to the previous training-operational missions carried out with the F-35B aircraft on the Pantelleria airport in which an aircraft that took off from Amendola landed on the island for a hot pit refuelling, leaving immediately for the completion of the mission, the novelty is represented by the deployment of the entire logistics sector subservient to the system. In fact, a large team of specialists, suitably equipped and with instrumentation in tow, was projected on site to allow the System to express all its capabilities to the fullest away from the Home Base.
It was an articulated and complex operation that required careful analysis and meticulous planning of the sorties that involved a multiplicity of assets of different types, specialized personnel and the maximum expression of logistical capabilities.
The redeployment involved several teams with the dispatch of technicians and specialists, support systems, preparation of operational infrastructures, supply of maintenance equipment, as well as all the components necessary to make the aircraft fully operational in a different context from the usual one. Each phase has been taken care of down to the smallest detail in order to ensure safety, efficiency and operational continuity, effectively transforming the Pantelleria base into a crucial, complete and autonomous operational node.
Logistics played a fundamental role and in this the support provided by the Pantelleria Airport Detachment was remarkable. Its mission is to ensure assistance to national and international military aircraft, deployed or in transit, as well as to ensure a high degree of operational efficiency of the Authority. In fact, as part of the pursuit of the assigned mission, the staff of the Detachment was responsible for planning, coordinating and implementing all the activities necessary to ensure logical and technical-operational support to the redeployed assets. In particular, the activity carried out in support of the crews of the 32nd Wing took the form of operations related to the pre- and post-flight phases of the deployed aircraft, involving numerous components of the Detachment. The activity was further enriched by integration missions with the Eurofighter aircraft of the 37th Wing that operated from Trapani-Birgi. These joint missions represent an important opportunity to refine cooperation and interoperability capabilities between different assets, helping to raise the overall level of training and operational readiness.
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