The drills, hosted at Italy’s Gioia del Colle air base in southern Italy, brought together Italian Eurofighter Typhoons from the Italian Air Force’s 36th Wing with Greek F-16s and Rafale fighter jets.
Why it matters: The exercise highlighted growing interoperability between two key NATO members in the Mediterranean.
- Rome and Athens are increasingly aligning on security and migration issues across the Eastern Mediterranean.
- The drills tested offensive and defensive air operations in complex multi-aircraft scenarios.
- The activity comes as Italy seeks a broader political role linking Europe, the Mediterranean and the Gulf.
Zoom in: the exercise. The joint activity involved Italy’s 36th Fighter Wing and two Greek Air Force squadrons:
- the 335th Squadron operating F-16s;
- the 332nd Squadron operating Rafale fighter jets.
- The exercise followed the framework of a Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DACT) mission, designed to simulate increasingly complex operational scenarios involving different aircraft platforms. A total of six aircraft took part in simulated air-to-air combat operations.
According to the Italian Air Force, the drills included both:
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- Offensive Counter Air (OCA) missions;
- Defensive Counter Air (DCA) missions.
- The stated objective was to improve operational readiness, combat effectiveness and coordination between allied air assets.
- Italian officials also framed the exercise as an opportunity to test command-and-control structures and national air defense coordination systems within a NATO context.
The big picture: The exercise reflects the growing strategic relevance of the Eastern Mediterranean for southern European NATO members.
- For Italy, cooperation with Greece increasingly cuts across multiple dossiers:
- regional security;
- NATO interoperability;
- migration management;
- Mediterranean coordination.
- The 36th Wing is one of five Italian Air Force wings responsible for national air defense and NATO Quick Reaction Alert missions.
Between the lines: The military activity comes just days before Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni travels to Greece and Cyprus on May 16-17.
- In Greece, Meloni is expected to meet southern European leaders to continue discussions on coordinated initiatives for migration flows in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean.
- The Italian government has increasingly presented this format as part of a broader effort to connect Europe, the Mediterranean and Gulf partners.
What to watch:
- Further Italy-Greece military exercises.
- NATO coordination in the alliance’s southeastern flank.
- Mediterranean cooperation on migration and security.
- The development of new Europe-Gulf political formats.
The bottom line: The joint drills suggest that cooperation between Italy and Greece is becoming more structured, combining NATO air defense coordination with a broader Mediterranean political agenda.
(Photo: X, @MinisteroDifesa)
