Allied Air Forces along with regional partners have come together at Andravida Air Base, Greece for the annual Hellenic Air Force-led exercise Iniochos 22, between March 28 and April 8. INIOCHOS is an annual Hellenic air force-sponsored operational and tactical level field training exercise hosted by the Hellenic Air Tactics Center at Greece’s fighter weapons school and in various locations across Greece. Over the two weeks, Allied fighter jets and support aircraft from France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, and the United States alongside air assets from Israel and Cyprus have been taking to the skies over Greece and the Mediterranean where they fly increasingly complex missions, specially designed to enhance interoperability and increase combat readiness.
“For 10 days, Greece will be attracting the global military aviation interest by conducting one of the most demanding exercises, Iniochos 22, which combined with the multinational Special Operations Exercise Orion-22 sends a strong message of deterrence. We focus on Air superiority and interoperability with the Hellenic wings at the epicenter, contributing to regional security and stability,” said General Konstantinos Floros, Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff.
“We are here strengthening NATO partnerships and strengthening our war-fighting readiness. We hope to learn that there is a commonality of purpose and tactics and that we are coming from the same kind of place and together we can move forward and increase not only the individual unit readiness but the entire readiness of the alliance. Soak it in. An assignment at USAFE (U.S. Air Forces Europe) is like none other. We get an opportunity to go to cool places and meet cool men and women and do an important mission. That’s quite frankly, given the world events right now it is very front and center about how important it is.,” explained Col. Jason A. Camilletti, 48th Fighter Wing commander.
The exercise will also work to enhance multi-domain operations in support of land and maritime forces. Participants will train alongside the ships and aircraft that are operating from the French and the US Navy Carrier Strike Groups currently deployed in the Ionian and the Aegean Seas. Enhancing the Alliance’s ability to mount a credible multi-domain response is now more important than ever in the current challenging security environment faced on NATO’s eastern flank. The annual live-fly training exercise includes the full spectrum of missions that sees crews operating in a complex and congested air environment. These include Air operations against an Integrated Air Defence System, Anti-Surface Warfare, and Combat Search and Rescue.
