RAMSTEIN: F-35, VIPER and RAFALE in Greece, in the largest NATO exercise

After conducting the largest exercise HNIOHOS of all time, the leadership of the Air Force is giving full weight to the upcoming NATO exercise, RAMSTEIN, which is the largest exercise of the Alliance with F-35, VIPER and RAFALE fighters.

By Christos Mazanitis

Last Thursday exercise ENIOHOS was completed, which was also the largest involving foreign aircraft of all time. Now, all the weight falls off in the organization of the RAMSTEIN exercise. It is about for the Alliance’s largest air exercise, which will take place for the first time and Greece will host it. The fact that neither Italy, nor France, nor M. Brittany, nor any other country was chosen shows NATO’s degree of confidence in Greece’s abilitieswho recently completed exercise HNIOHOS, which was the largest ever.

The exercise will be held in Septemberwith the 117th Fighter Wing, in Andravida and the 116th Fighter Wing, in Araxos, being the two bases that will host the fighters of the participating countries.

Already the Head of GEA Vice Admiral Demosthenes Grigoriadis has gathered enough notes, as a result of the HNIOHOS exercise, so that in RAMSTEIN Greece set the bar very high with the “good morning”.

Particular emphasis is given by both the PA and NATO in participation, cooperation and operational action of 4th, 5th and 5th generation fighters. Thus, the lion’s share will be the scripts with the participation of F-16 Viper and RAFALE from 4.5 generation aircraft and F-35 from 5th generation.

Already, Greece has “vipers” and “gusts” and is about to get the 5th generation “ghosts”. and this exercise will be the “baptism of fire” for the Greek pilots.

As informed the enikos.grIn terms the F-35s seem to have two countries “locked” with their participation. It is Italy and the USA. The Italian F-35s are not the first time they will land in Greece, which happened again in 2019 in the HNIOXOS exercise. However, it is the first time that they will cooperate with the Greek Viper and Rafale.

One of the main reasons why Greece was chosen for RAMSTEIN’s maiden event is the ability to capture very large areas both over land and over seato make complex scenarios that predict large Comao, i.e. of numerous formations according to NATO doctrine on air operations. In addition, the Greek area offers many different terrainssuch as the relief of the mainland, but also the island complex, with multifaceted challenges.

Among other things, the scenarios under planning they will test the mettle of NATO members in air and missile defense and dealing with electronic interference as well as unmanned aircraft.

However, it is also interesting the issue of Turkey’s participation, which was the first country to express its interest in participating. The participation of both is considered “definitive”. Turkish F-16swhere they will even land on a Greek base – with Andravida more likely. It will be the first time in many years that Turkish fighter jets will land on a Greek base for the participation in an allied exercise, since its last scheduled participation was in TIGER MEET ’22, which was however canceled due to the continuous challenges at that time in the Aegean.

The list of participating countries has been closed and the final meeting is scheduled for the end of May.

Guided by HNIOHOS

The ENIOHOS exercisewhich ended last Thursday, April 18, will be the guide for the organization of RAMSTEIN as well.

Already, this year’s ENIOHOS set the bar very high after it took place with the participation of 36 fighters – the biggest of any other year. In fact, as airline sources point out in enikos.gr, participation would have been even higher had it not been for the Middle East crisisso the participation of Israel, with which Greece has developed a strategic relationship, would be certain.

This year’s HNIOHOS started on April 8 and the main Host Unit of the Exercise was Andravidas Air Basefrom where almost all the fighter aircraft of the foreign missions operated as well as the majority of the fighters of the Air Force.

Specifically, they participated France with RAFALE aircraft and E-3F AEW aircraft, United Kingdom with TYPHOON aircraft, USA with F-16 aircraft and MQ-9 Unmanned Aircraft, Spain with F-18 aircraft, Qatar with RAFALE aircraft, Cyprus Republic with an AW-139 helicopter, Montenegro with a B-414 helicopter, Romania with F-16 aircraft and Saudi Arabia with TYPHOON aircraft completing 1027 sorties in the entire range of the Athens FIR.

Also in exercise forces of the Army, Navy and Special Warfare Command were involvedas well as Austria and Portugal with Intelligence and Special Forces personnel, who were instrumental in creating complex and realistic scenarios, while Germany participated with a group of observers.

During the exercise “HINOCHOS 2024” all kinds of air missions were executed, under an intense combat rhythm, day and night, covering the whole of modern air operations in a series of complex scenarios of high realism.