NATO Allies strengthen interoperability during Greece-led Iniochos 24 aerial exercise

Europe, News April 17, 2024 , by IRIA No Comments

NATO Allied Air Forces and partners are taking part in the international live-fly Exercise Iniochos 24 at Andravida Air Base in Greece from April 8 to 18, 2024.

NATO Allies including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Montenegro as well as partner states including Austria, Cyprus, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are taking part in the Iniochos 24 Exercise hosted by Greece.

Iniochos 24 is Europe’s largest aerial exercise hosted by the Hellenic Air Force. The exercise involved more than 100 aircraft and helicopters including Rafale, F-16s, F-4 Phantom, EF-18 Hornet, Typhon Eurofighter, and Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets.

The drills also involved E-3F radar planes and MQ-9 aerial drones, while Cyprus’ AgustaWestland AW139 and Montenegro’s B-414 helicopters also took part in the Iniochos 24 exercise.

🇬🇷-led Exercise INIOCHOS 24 with #NATO allies 🇫🇷🇲🇪🇷🇴🇪🇸🇬🇧🇺🇸🇵🇹🇩🇪 & partners 🇦🇹🇶🇦 foster interoperability and combat readiness during complex fly missions out of Andravida Air Base

Read more: https://t.co/t45Su2OyIq pic.twitter.com/cUvd4rVAKf
— NATO Air Command (@NATO_AIRCOM) April 15, 2024

The Hellenic Air Force Fighter Weapons School supervises all air operations during the exercise including Air Power Contribution, Counter-Land and Maritime Operations, and Combat Search and Rescue missions.

This year, Austria and Portugal sent their intelligence personnel and special forces teams, while a German group of observers also took part in the exercise.

According to the NATO Allied Air Command (AIRCOM) statement, the participating countries are working together to plan, execute, and debrief missions. The annual exercise was first conducted in the 1980s as a tactical-level national air exercise. This year Allies sent the largest number of fighter jets and helicopters for the exercise as NATO members celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Alliance.

Chief of the Hellenic Air Force General Staff Lieutenant General Dimosthenis Grigoriadis said, “Exercise INIOCHOS 24 provides a unique opportunity for participants to fly complex missions, specifically designed to enhance interoperability and increase combat readiness.”

*^{Fighter jets of NATO Allied Air Forces and regional partners taking part in Exercise INIOCHOS 24. (Image Credit: Twitter/@nik_red)}*

Lt. Gen. Grigoriadis highlighted “The exercise scenarios range the full spectrum of air operations and the use of the F-16 Tactical Simulators further enhance the training objectives.”

According to the NATO AIRCOM statement, “INIOCHOS offers realistic combined air operations where crews operate in a complex and congested air environment.”

“These challenging scenarios with multiple modern threats and real-time live injects are specially designed to enhance interoperability and increase combat readiness, building a stronger and more agile Alliance,” it added.

The statement further highlighted that this year Greece will also host NATO’s first Ramstein Flag exercise at the same Andravida Air Base. During the multi-domain exercise, the Allies will combine the use of the “synthetic training environment to achieve its objectives” and practice “high-end sophisticated defence skills including; Counter Anti-Access/Area Denial (C-A2AD), Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) and 4th and 5th generation aircraft integration.”