RIGA, Latvia – Allies and Partners are scheduled to conduct quick
reaction drills in Baltic airspace with a focus on Latvia on April 17
and 18 providing training opportunities for regional air forces.
The
two-day exercise Ramstein Alloy 18-1 will see Allies Denmark, Italy,
Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Poland and the United States as well as
Partners Finland and Sweden operating fighter jets, light fighter
aircraft, a helicopter and a tanker aircraft that conduct multinational
drills demonstrating NATO and Partner capability and interoperability.
Participants will practice loss of communication, search and rescue and
Air-to-Air Refuelling procedures and conduct air combat training. The
flying assets will also be used to simulate Close Air Support for
Latvian Joint Terminal Attack Controller teams at Adazi Training Range
and may conduct so-called practice diversions to alternate airfields in
the region.
During the multinational exercise the flying
activities will be controlled by Control and Reporting Centre at
Karmelava, Lithuania, Control and Reporting Point at Ämari, Estonia, as
well as airborne assets such as NATO and Royal Air Force airborne
warning and control system (AWACS) planes and an Italian Conformal
Airborne Early Warning (CAEW) jet.
On behalf of NATO Allied Air
Command, the Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem, Germany, oversees
this training event that has been conducted for more than ten years now.
Regularly scheduled three times a year, it is a routine training event
aimed at further honing skills of highly capable and flexible aircrews
and controllers in the field of quick reaction tactics, techniques and
procedures.
RAMSTEIN ALLOY 18-1 specifically provides a venue for
close cooperation and coordination with NATO Partners Finland and
Sweden; both Partners’ aircraft take part in this exercise. The RAMSTEIN
ALLOY series uses scenarios that could happen in any country around the
world, when a civilian airliner loses contact with the air traffic
control agencies and needs assistance from the QRA aircraft.
Story by Allied Air Command Public Affairs Office