The Italian Air Forces (Aeronautica Militare) and the United Kingdom (RAF) have signed a formal agreement to facilitate mutual service and maintenance of the F-35 Lightning II and Eurofighter fighters. According to a recent news from the RAF, the agreement aims to increase interoperability and efficiency of Italy and the UK in sponsoring these fighter aircraft.
Thanks to news published on January 24, the RAF realized that the agreement was based on a declaration of intent: “Long History, Long Future: Hurricane to Storm”, which was signed in May last year at RAF Marham Air Base. It is worth noting that this station is not only home to the British F-35 Lightning aircraft, but also performs various engineering support functions, such as maintenance tasks.
The agreement, signed by RAF Support Director Sean Harris (representing the United Kingdom) and General Michele Opala of the RAF Logistics Command (representing Italy), was celebrated at Amendola Air Base, located to the south-east of the Italian territory. As the RAF has been able to explain, it sets out the financial, legal and airworthiness principles that must be adhered to by Italy and the UK in order to achieve mutual maintenance and mutual servicing on both platforms and aircraft as well as in relation to combined arms. Systems.
Based on this agreement, itAF engineers will be able to carry out joint care and maintenance activities for RAF aircraft and the same will happen vice versa by the RAF. It should be noted that all of these tasks will be carried out during air surveillance operations and exercises carried out by countries around the world.
Likewise, it is important to note that this action is part of the broader initiatives NATO is taking today for agile combat employment (wittyfor its abbreviation in English), whose mission focuses on achieving greater mutual operational advantage for partner nations as a result of working cooperatively.
Therefore, with the aim of achieving more effective maintenance, over the next 12 months, “The RAF and RAF will collaborate to jointly develop, exercise and validate the technical and administrative processes, as well as procedures necessary to achieve full operational capability of the F-35 Lightning II and Eurofighters.”
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