The first NATO 'Flag' exercise took place in Greece in the first half of October 2024. Leaded by Allied Air Command and hosted by the Hellenic Air Force, exercise Ramstein Flag 2024 was designed to strengthen cooperation, iteroperability and integration among NATO members, while demonstrating the Alliance's resolve, commitment, and ability to deter potential adversaries and defend the Alliance through multi-domain operations.
Besides hosting the air-ex, the Hellenic Air Force (Polemiki Aeroporia) made vital contributions to this cutting-edge multi-domain live-fly exercise.
Andravida Air Base was the main hosting point of NATO aircraft with the deployment of Swedish AF JAS-39s, Italian AF F-2000s, Polish AF F-16s, Portugues AF F-16s, USAF F-35s, Hungarian AF JAS-39s, French AF Rafales, and Spanish AF Typhoons. A French E-3F AEW and a Canadian CC-150 tanker were based at Preveza; a RAF RC135W flew missions from Souda Bay; and a NATO E-3A AWACS was based at FOB Aktion. Italian AF F-35s (Amendola), KC-767 tankers and G-550 CAEW (Pratica di Mare) and MQ-9A Predator (Sigonella), NISRF (NATO Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaisance Force) RQ-4D Phoenix (Sigonella), Romanian AF F-16s (Fetesti), USAF KC-135s (Mildenhall), French AF A-330 MRTT (Istres), operated on daily basis directly from their homebases. Hellenic AF aircraft (F-16s, Mirage 2000s, and Rafales) also flew from their homebases, alongside the F-4s from Andravida. In total more than 140 aircraft from 13 different NATO Allies Countries were involved in the two weeks air- exercise, flying more than 1100 sorties.
The main difference of 'Flag' exercises to other air-exercises is the intensity of the debriefing, as the debrief is where the real learning happens. After every flying day all crews gather in the main briefing facility (the 'War-Room') and review recorded imagery and in-flight data of their missions. Sharing their experiences and making them transparent to the whole team helps everyone to improve. Through that intensive debriefing, pilots benefit from the exercise even more and grow as combat aviators.
In an average wave conducted twice a day during Ramstein Flag, more than 60 aircraft took the air to exercise against most credible and challenging threats. Controlled by a mixed Hellenic Air Force and NATO exercise control staff, the flying maneuvers enabled and trained the vital capabilities NATO Air Force provide in concert with their sister domains. In an effort of making Ramstein Flag even more relevant and challenging, the HAF also provided the Red Forces (adversary force) with more than 30 fighter jets out of the bases across the country.
Once again RAFL-24 has demonstrated that a key role in achieving air superiority in any conflict and long-range mission is air-to-air refueling: the ability to keep aircraft moving and perform missions to achieve air superiority is something really crucial in modern scenarios. The training of AA refueling in the complex Ramstein Flag scenario was essential for the integration of multinational and multilingual NATO crews and proved interoperability with different types of aircraft and different air forces.
In general, 'Flag' Exercises are air combat exercises conducted with multiple scenarios designed to provide realistic combat settings. Based on traditional designations of Red (enemy) and Blue (friendly), aerial systems simulate Air Defence assets that engage offensive or adversary assets.
The next Ramstein Flag exercise is scheduled to take place in the Northern Europe in the spring of 2025, with main hosting bases Leewarden in The Netehrlands and Skrysdrup in Denmark.