‘When I thought I’d never see another Tornado low level again the Italians had other ideas, they planted them low, swept the wings back and fired the burners up,’ Dafydd Phillips.
Filmed by our friend Dafydd Phillips, the awesome video in this post features Aeronautica Militare Italiana (AMI, Italian Air Force) Tornado IDS attack aircraft and Al-Quwwat Al-Jawiyah Al-Malakiyah as-Su’udiyah (Royal Saudi Air Force, RSAF) F-15SA fighter bombers flying low level training missions in Greece during Exercise Iniochos 23.
‘A trip to the Peloponnese in Greece bagged some interesting aircraft flying in the low flying area. When I thought I’d never see another Tornado low level again [after Royal Air Force Tonkas were retired in 2019] the Italians had other ideas, they planted them low, swept the wings back and fired the burners up. “Grazie Italia!!”. The Saudi Arabians dropped by also and gave us a couple few passes in their F-15SA’s,’ Phillips says.
Iniochos 2023 involved a large number of Hellenic Air Force (HAF) assets, such as fighters, including the recently acquired Rafale, Air Defence Systems, helicopters, transport and training aircraft.
Additionally, Hellenic Army, Navy and Special Operations assets and personnel contributed significantly to the creation of complex and realistic scenarios across the exercise areas which spread over the Greek mainland and seas.
Furthermore, in Iniochos 2023 participated with air assets:
• Cyprus with an AW139 Helicopter
• France with Rafales
• India with Su-30
• Italy with Tornados
• Jordan with F-16s
• Saudi Arabia with F-15s
• Slovenia with PC-9s
• Spain with EF-18s
• USA with F-16s and MQ-9s
Additionally, Austria participated with INTEL personnel and Canada with Air Battle Managers.
The significant regional impact of «Iniochos 2023» has prompted the interest of a number of Nations which have declared the intention to participate with observers, such as Bahrain, Germany, Montenegro, Morocco, Slovakia and Tunisia.
Photo credit: Dafydd Phillips
