AirForces Monthly Magazine November 2019 Edizione posteriore

This summer, four Italian Air Force F-2000A Typhoons deployed to Mihail Kogălniceanu air base in Romania. Here they formed the Task Force Air 4° Stormo, working alongside the Romanian Air Force for surveillance and defence of local airspace. Two of those jets appear on the cover of this issue of AFM and there’s more from the Italian Air Force inside with an exclusive visit to its only frontline unit flying the C-27J Spartan multi-mission airlifter.

An official ceremony on September 24 marked the end of the TB30 Epsilon’s tenure with the flying school of the Armée de l’Air. Another European trainer is also bowing out soon and Jamie Hunter met the last students learning their trade as fighter pilots on the RAF’s Tucano T1. Our correspondent Joe Campion was also on hand as the RAF’s Tucano Display Team completed its final public performance at Southport Air Show.

Attack helicopters feature too, with reports on the Cypriot National Guard’s Mi-35 Hind and SA342 Gazelle and from Pathankot Air Force Station in Punjab, as the AH-64E(I) Apache formally enters service with the Indian Air Force.

From the US, we bring coverage of the 115th Fighter Wing – the ‘Badger Air Militia’ in Madison, Wisconsin – and of the 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron ‘Black Widows’, whose F-35As settled in Europe this summer as part of a Theater Security Package.

On the industry side, the focus is on South Africa’s air-launched weapons, where new companies are entering the market alongside established giants, such as state-owned aerospace enterprise Denel Dynamics.

Intel Report looks back on a busy few months for the latest fighter rotations on the Baltic Air Policing mission. There’s an Exercise Report on the biennial Northern Edge exercise in the wilds of Alaska, while Air Power Association President, Air Marshal (ret’d) Greg Bagwell CB CBE, looks at the problems of confronting a near-peer adversary.