Five kilometers above the Mediterranean Sea are almost overwhelmed in the chair: as a newspaper in Austria, the “Kroon” could be there during an air combat exercise in the cockpit of an M-346 that would soon have to fly for the army.
A short crack on board radio, as the voice of Antonio Perrone sounds in the helmet for the first time. The 41-year-old Italian is in the front cockpit of the M-346T, I have increased in the back. We wear fixed anti-G suits that fill with air in tight turns and keep the blood in the upper half of the body. A face mask on the helmet, from which we already breathe oxygen on the ground. “Our mission today is aerial fighting, two good ones against an evil,” says Perrone, while she throws the engines. “And we are harm.”
The Italian loosens the brakes, we roll away. Above the Mediterranean, I find out, we will simulate an aggressive maneuver of enemy plane for two Spanish fighting pilots in training. Our calling board is “Python 3”, the flight takes an hour, of which about 35 minutes curve, divided into six attacks. In the three jets involved there are also a flight instructor of the German Air Force, a Frenchman, the Italian Perrone for me and me. A Babylonian language mixture on the radio, half of Europe trains its fighting pilots at the International Flight Training School in Sardinia. Also Austria: we have been buying expensive training hours on Italian jets for years to prepare our pilots for the Eurofighter. That should change. 12 pieces of the M-346 will be planned for Linz-Hörsching in the coming years and the training must be reduced to the country.
Perrone lowers the flaps on the wings of the approximately seven -ton Jet in the starting position and rolls on the runway of three kilometers 17L. In addition to my right knee, I turn on a white fuse lever, on which the word “armed” now appears in black and yellow alarm color. This makes the spindle chair sharp. We are in the brakes while Perrone brings the engines to complete performance. Suddenly we pick up speed. The gear is huge. We are pressed into the chair. Ten seconds later, “Python 3” is in the air.
“Warm up” for the high body pollution
The M-346, in which we fly, is an Italian product, built by manufacturer Leonardo. He already supplies the armed forces with the helicopter AW-169, Austria wants to expand the collaboration to the fighter jets. In addition to Germany, our southern neighbor is one of our closest allies in defense problems. Common exercises, joint know-how transfer and simply collecting. The relationship is so good that the new head of the Italian Air Force, Antonio Conserva, his Austrian counterpart, Major General Gerfried Promberger, received as the first guest.
Five kilometers above Sardinia we go to the training area off the coast of the island with a west lane. Civil aircraft are not allowed here. Along the way we warm up: a steep curve on the left with four times land gear, then a steep curve on the right with almost seven times of land gear. The maneuver serves for security: if you get black before your eyes in these warm -up curves, you have to cancel. Well -voor pilots also have bad days when the circulation does not play a role. We continue to fly to the two Spaniards who are already lurking on the Mediterranean Sea.
About 15 miles away, the center of three screens suddenly shows two points in front of me. With a free eye, only light blue sky can be seen above the dark blue sea on the horizon, but at about 1300 kilometers per hour we approach the two opposite aircraft that accommodate us. After a few seconds, the Spaniards are in sight. “Cused”, I hear the German instructor on the radio, which means “melted together”: are jet and from now on visual contact and biting each other. Both cracks the rudders to the left and climb into a brutal curve steam.
Computer speech reports: we have met
The centrifugal forces acting on the human body are breathtaking in the nearest sense of the word. With 6G nature acceleration, the six -time weight of your own weight lies on the body. A few moments must be well endured. But when hundreds of kilograms for half a minute, it becomes sweaty. Thighs, abdominal muscles and ass are permanently tense to prevent the blood from entering. After a while, breathing is only inhaled so that fresh oxygen enters the brain. Suddenly a computer voice sounds. “Hit. Hit.” We have just touched. Not from the ray in which we were clamped in the air. But from the third plane, which had risen unnoticed and had shot down. We stabilize ourselves and fly straight ahead for a short time. “The good news: the first round is over,” says Perrone, when he also breathes deeply. “The bad: there are another five.”
Because Austria not only trains fellow students with its planned M-346, but also monitors, illuminate and support airspace, the Bundesher is expected to order the FA variant: it has a modern radar on board and as a block-20 version a continuous display in the cockpit. This has its price: for the total package with training hours, maintenance package, simulators and weapons, the Ministry of Defense expects investments of around 1.1 billion euros. The plane itself costs around 39 million euros each, the deal must be around the national vacation.
Sweaty: Pilots fight for every shot
The air war remains furious over the coast. In the meantime, fatigue begins. The strong loads and high concentration on each individual radio message require their toll. We are shot again, so it is in the curriculum, but the fleet students have to fight for each goal. Finally, the last “knock – -off” radio message of the lead pilot, the command for the abortion. It goes back in a narrow formation and the pilots inspect their aircraft close together. They call this “Battle Damage Assessment”, ie a visual inspection from outside, or one of the planes is damaged by the high forces. Shortly thereafter we put it in
Distance of 20 seconds on the runway. In the meantime, the following students are already preparing for their flight to the ground: Christoph, 23, and Hartwig, 26, two young Bundesher soldiers. You also learn your profession in the fast, Agile M-346 on the way to the Eurofighter-cockpit. For now in Italy.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
