AEROMEDIA
The Italian Aerospace Information Web
by Aeromedia - corso Giambone 46/18 - 10135 Torino (Italy)

Italian Eurofighters ready for “scramble”

From December 16, 2005, two Eurofighter EF 2000 fighters of the 4th Stormo of the Italian Air Force are on permanent alert at the Grosseto Air Base, in Central Italy. The Unit commanded by Colonel Vittorio Iannotta is now a part of the national SSSA - Servizio di Sorveglianza dello Spazio Aereo (Air Space Surveillance Service) which provides monitoring and defence for the national air space, including the detection of non-authorized aircraft.
Out of the four Air Forces now operating the new European air-superiority fighter, the IAF is the first to reach NATO QRA (Quick Readiness Alert) standard. It’s interesting to note that the EF 2000s already delivered to the IAF have logged up 1,000 flight hours just 45 days ago. The EF 2000s from the 4th Stormo join F-16 fighters operated by the 5th Stormo at Cervia and by the 37th Stormo at Trapani (Sicily) in the effort to assure safety in the Italian sky, a primary role for IAF.
In the meantime, on December 22, the British Government announced a deal worth an estimated £10 billion to supply 72 EF 2000 fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia: The typhoons (export name of the EF 2000) will to replace older aircraft such as Tornado ADV jets brought in the 1980s and 1990s from the then British Aerospace, under the Al Yamamah arms-for-oil agreement.

In the picture: Eurofighter EF 2000 IS007 C.S.X7275, IAF’s 7th single-seater aircraft, during a production flight (2005). (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, December 2005)