In early June, the US military worked alongside Croatia, Italy and Slovenia in an air integration exercise that saw significant participation by US and Italian F-35s.
AS REPORTS FROM Crimea suggest Russia is boosting its forces in the region, exercises like ‘Astral Knight 2019’ (AK19) are taking on increasing significance. Amid a raft of European exercises that have been taking place, ‘Astral Knight’ ran from June 3-6 and was led by US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) at Aviano Air Base, Italy, with participation from the neighboring forces of Croatia, Germany and Slovenia.
The aim was to exercise integrated air and missile defense against key locations, combining live flight operations and virtual scenarios to enhance command and control of overlapping land, air and maritime battlespace. ‘We want to send the message that the allies are prepared to meet and defeat any threat to the US and our partners,’ commented Lt Gen Steven L. Basham, deputy commander of US Air Forces in Europe — Air Forces Africa.
Exercise planning staffmember Maj Robert Umholtz added, ‘In an environment where our near-peer competitors are rapidly developing emerging air and missile threat capabilities, from new manned and unmanned ai…
