Iniohos 2019
Iniohos 2019 was held from Monday 1st until Friday 12th of April 2019 at Andravida Air Base, located in the Northwest Peloponnes, Greece. Touchdown Aviation got the great opportunity to visit Andravida Air Base to see the Helenic Air Force and invited Air Forces operating together in the exercise.
The first Iniohos exercise was established in 1988 as a small scale COMAO exercise for the Hellenic Air Force only. Nowadays the Iniohos exercise is a multinational exercise organised by the Air Tactics Center ( KEAT ) based in Adravida. The exercise aimes at Providing REALISTIC training, which is achieved by creating a realistic Battle Environment. Participating personnel are exposed to an intensive battle rhythm with realistic attrition rates and challenging scenarios which include multiple modern threats and real time live injects, tailored to produce the fog of war and the friction effect (per Clausewitz), which is expected to dominate the modern battlefield and test both the physical and psychological endurance of the modern fighter.
Secondary objective is Accurate Shot/Event Assessment. This is achieved with the use of onboard and off board tracking data, sensors and specialized debriefing software, which is leveraged for the reconstruction of the mission by experienced Fighter Weapons School instructors, who oversee the debriefing process.
For Iniochos 2019 77 Aircraftt and 2000 personal deployed to Andravida to join the exercise. The following airforces where participating:
- Israeli Air Force 13 F-16C/D’s from 109 ( the Valley ) 117 ( The First Jet ) Squadron
- United States Air Force Europe 6 F-16C from 480th Fighter Squadron
- United Arab Emirates Air Force 5 Mirage 2000DAD/RAD from 71 Squadron
- Hellenic Air Force all fighter and support Squadrons
- Italian Air Force 6 F-35A’s from 32 Stormo and 6 Tornado ECR/IDS from 6 Stormo
Observers from Canada, Croatia Egypt France Germany Jordan Romania where present to learn from the exercise and join the exercise in the future. During the exercise every Blu and Red Air where flown by every unit in the exercise depending on the individual mission flown during the exercise. During the exercise two or three waves where flown during day and night time.
In order to achieve the objectives of the Exercise, the HFWS oversees the missions from scenario planning to debriefing and makes certain that they cover the full spectrum of missions currently performed by the HAF such as:
- Airfield Attack
- Anti-Surface Warfare
- Battlefield Air Interdiction
- Non Traditional Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance
- Close Air Support
- Combat Search & Rescue
- Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defences
- Escort-Sweep
- High Value Airborne & Ground Asset Protection
- Non Traditional Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance
- Offensive Counter-Air Operations against Integrated Air Defence System
- Slow Mover Protection
- Strike/Strike Coordination and Reconnaissance
- Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defences
Every day 100 sorties where flown and after two weeks a total of 863 sorties were flown by the participating units.
Touchdown Aviation would like to thank Colonel Zolotas, commander from KEAT and Lt Colonel Tsitoumis, the HAF Spokeman for the hospitality and the assistance to join the exercise.
