Italian Lightnings on patrol

 The stealth form of the Italian F35 reflect on the wet taxiway while two Lightning II are taxiing to the runway. An unknown aircraft has been detected over the Baltic Sea and the Italian F35 are launched by NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem to investigate the incident. These state-of-the-art 5th-generation fighters are part of the Italian Task Force from the 32nd Wing detachment at Malbork.

The Italian Task Force Air 32nd Wing deployed to Malbork on 13 September 2023 equipped with two F-35A from the 32nd Amendola Wing and two from the 6th Ghedi Wing. Together with the F35 a team of crew chiefs maintainers and other service personnel arrived. The first thing they had to do was to establish the structure that is required to host the F-35s ahead of the deployment. Since the Polish base flies the MIG 29  the Italian team and their hosts had to adapt parts of the base infrastructure to meet the high security standard needs for the Lightning operations. The Italian Task Force did Air Policing combat duties on NATO’s eastern flank for two months.  They support the Polish air force  with their MIG-29 from 22 Baza Lotnictwa Taktycznego located at Malbork Airbase  and F-16s from 32 Baza Lotnictwa Taktycznego  Łask and 31 Baza Lotnictwa Taktycznego Poznan. Since 2019, the Italian Air Force has seamlessly deployed its F-35s to NATO Air Policing and Air Shielding missions in Iceland and Estonia