The Typhoons of the Gioia del Colle Air Base’s 36th Stormo of Italian Air Force have started their air policing task over the Albanian air space as requested by NATO.
Albania, as a new NATO member lacks any asset able to perform this task as its air force is only equipped with helicopter and light aircraft which support land forces, perform search and rescue and civil protection roles.
The Italian Typhoons are the first Eurofighters committed to the air policing task for nations lacking any such capability as requested by NATO.
The air policing role includes the surveillance of the air space; the protection of borders and infrastructures; interception of aircraft flying without the proper authorisation and the assistance to aircraft with communication problems.
This new task confirms the capabilities of the Typhoon as the backbone of the air policing role within the air forces that operate the new generation European aircraft. The Typhoon has been designed from the beginning as a multirole aircraft but with a specific air superiority focus.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is the best platform available in the six nations that have the aircraft in service for the air defence tasks.
Enzo Casolini, Eurofighter CEO, said: “We are very pleased that the Gioia del Colle Wing has been involved in this new task. Eurofighter Typhoon is a mature platform and defence system that is perfectly suited to the air force requirements for air defence, assuring the best fleet effectiveness available in the fighter aircraft sector”.
The 36th Wing of Gioia del Colle together with 4th Fighter Wing equipped with Eurofighter, and the 5th Wing of Cervia and the 37th of Trapani both equipped with F 16, is one of the Italian Air Force units assigned to the control of Italian airspace 24 hours a day, all year round.
Italy has been engaged in air policing Slovenia’s air space for NATO since 2007.
