“The Ramstein 1v1 event, organised and executed by United States Air Forces Europe with support from NATO Allied Air Command, has been outstanding,” said Air Marshal Johnny Stringer, Deputy Commander of Allied Air Command who had “ also been fortunate enough to experience it first hand through a flight in a Rafale fast jet from the French Air and Space Force – which was both fantastic and a happy return for me to core fighter pilot air combat skills.”
“The need to practice Dissimilar Air Combat Training against challenging opponents remains essential for our air forces, even in an age of stealth aircraft and highly advanced systems,” Air Marshal Stringer continued to say.
“France was one of nine nations participating in this inaugural event; those nine represent the 32 nations in the Alliance and also highlight some key points for me: the strength and capability provided by NATO air forces to deter aggression and keep Europe and the North Atlantic safe and secure; the cooperation and integration across those air forces that allows us to operate and succeed at all levels; and the excellent camaraderie and friendship across all who serve in our allied air forces,” Air Marshal Stringer explained. His conclusion: “A great event, and a real privilege to be a small part of it.”
Besides allowing aircrew to demonstrate they are prepared to meet any challenge with precision and unity underscoring that successful military air operations require exceptional teamwork, the ground crews made an essential contribution to the Ramstein 1v1, turning around aircraft for the next mission. The fighter meet was an opportunity to practise aircraft cross-servicing, maintainers benefited from the exchange of engineering insights across the air forces and aircraft types here. One example was the twoship of Norwegian Air Force F-35 jets that were serviced by U.S. Air Force F-35 maintainers from RAF Lakenheath at Ramstein Air Base. This enable Norway to participate without organic ground crew and fully qualifies as an Agile Combat Employment (ACE) activity.
“Tactical exercises like this 1v1 event demonstrate our capability to rapidly deploy fighter assets to NATO air bases and underscore our ability to showcase interoperability, which is the bedrock of ACE”, said Brigadier General Gilles Juventin, Deputy Chief of Staff Support at Allied Air Command, who also flew in a French Rafale fighter jet launched out of the US Air Base at Ramstein. “ACE is an operational scheme of manoeuvre designed to improve resilience and survivability, generating air combat power from both home bases and geographically dispersed locations. What we have achieved here the last few days is a small but important component of ACE,” he added.