Marruecos y España despliegan sus cazas para las maniobras “Desert Flag”

In the coming days, Spanish and Moroccan fighters will be taking part in exercises in the United Arab Emirates. The "Desert Flag" manoeuvres, which will last until 17 March and will be hosted by the Al Dhafra air base, will bring together numerous fighter jets from various countries. In addition to Spain and Morocco, the United States, Bahrain, Kuwait, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, India and South Korea will take part in the exercises, the aim of which is to test the fighter fights in order to improve practices, while promoting the collaboration of the air forces involved.

This is an important event as it is the first time that Spain will take part in these manoeuvres. To this end, it will deploy six Eurofighter fighters from the Air and Space Army, which are already in Emirati territory. These fighters, from the 14th Wing of the Los Llanos base in Albacete, are accompanied by a hundred military personnel in a deployment which, according to Infodefensa, has been in preparation since the end of last year

The Air and Space Army considers participation in these manoeuvres to be "of great interest". It is an "exceptional opportunity for training and for the logistical challenge of deploying a force of six Eurofighters and almost 100 personnel with all their associated maintenance support equipment to a non-NATO country, where they have never been deployed before, using their own resources, thousands of kilometres away". The 14th Wing's involvement is due to an invitation from the UAE Air Warfare Centre to attend what will be the eighth edition of the "Desert Flag" manoeuvres.
 
These will not only involve fighters. The exercises will also involve bombers, personnel recovery assets, suppression of enemy air defences, command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The three-week exercise phase is scheduled to begin today. However, it will not be until 22 March that the forces from the different countries that have travelled to the Emirates will return to national territory.

In addition to the 14th Wing, resources from the Second Air Deployment Support Squadron, 31st Wing, 35th Wing, 45th Group, Air Logistics Command, Directorate of Economic Affairs and the Logistic Centre for Armament and Experimentation and Industry will provide support for the manoeuvres carried out by the Spanish forces. In this way, Spain arrives in the Emirates for what is expected to be air-to-air and air-to-surface training, which will serve to improve the tactics of the countries involved. In addition, Spanish Eurofighter pilots will train in a combined air, ground and electronic threat environment in exercises that will involve several in-flight refuelling of tanker aircraft.