The flights over simulated enemy territory are the most complex in the context of the exercise taking place at the Natal Air Base in Rio Grande do Norte.
Destroying, disrupting or limiting enemy military aviation: these are the objectives of Offensive Counterair (OCA), one of the air force tasks in which the F-39E Gripen is being deployed during Cruzex 2024.
During the OCA, a Gripen formation is responsible for carrying out the sweep mission, where the Gripen clears the way in order to neutralize enemy fighters so that the attacking allied force can carry out its mission safely.
“We are dealing with different types of aircraft and technologies, facing pilots with varied experiences who work both for and against us in the simulated training scenario. In almost every Cruzex flight, we are in the context of the so-called Composite Air Operations (COMAO), in which dozens of aircraft of different nationalities carry out different missions in the same place, as a way of saturating enemy defenses, increasing the safety of those involved,” explained Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Lincoln Santos Fórneas, commander of the 1st Air Defense Group (1st GDA).
Cruzex 2024 follows a doctrine very similar to that applied by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which is in line with the latest lessons learned from recent conflicts. In this context of modernity, the participation of the F-39E Gripen is essential for training the pilots of the 1st GDA and the other squadrons, since the fighter represents the cutting edge in terms of on-board electronic systems, such as radar, datalink and electronic warfare, as well as the performance of a 9G-class aircraft.