Between September 22nd and October 3rd the NATO exercise Ramstein Guard 8 was conducted in the airspaces of Bulgaria, Romania and Greece.
The Bulgarian Air Force participated with MiG-21 and MiG-29 fighters from 3rd airbase Graf Ignatievo. Bulgaria was host to the Italian Air F orce which came to Graf Ignatievo and participated with several types which included 2 Tornado ECR (MM7062, MM7053) and 1 Tornado IDS ( MM7057) from 50° Stormo 'Giorgio Graffer' /155° Gruppo ETS (Piacenza Airbase). In addition to the Tornados, 2 EF-2000 (MM7287, MM7235) from 4° Stormo 'Amedeo d'Aosta'/ 9° Gruppo (Grosseto Airbase) and 1 EF-2000 (MM7280) from 36° Stormo 'Riccardo Helmut Seidl' / 12° Gruppo (Gioia del Colle Airbase) also participated. Besides the fighters, two Dassault Falcon 20 (Cobham’s G-FRAU and AVdef’s F-GPAD) jets specially modified to fulfill missions in electronic warfare flew from Sofia-Vrazhdebna airport while SAM systems such as the SA-3 Goa and SA-10 Grumble including their associated command and radar installations also actively participated.
The purpose of the exercise was to increase combat readiness and effectiveness of the anti air defenses of the NATO alliance in an environment with high levels of electronic jamming and interference. This type of exercise has been conducted annually for the last 4 years. However, in this edition the new and unique aspect is the participation of the Italian air force. This also marks the first time that Tornados have visited Bulgaria.
Each day of the exercise included two waves of flights, in the morning and in

the afternoon. A wave consisted of 8 aircraft which included 2 each of MiG-21s, MiG-29s, Tornados and EF-2000s. All aircraft flew with training missiles of different types. The Tornados flew with AGM-88 HARM, the Eurofighters with IRIS-T and all MiGs with R-60. A typical scenario which was flown involves all the aircraft splitting into two groups after taking off. The first group consists of MiG-21s and EF-2000s and plays the role of the “defenders” while the second group consisting of MiG-29s and Tornados act as “aggressors”. The main goal of the Tornados is then to penetrate the defenses at low altitude and successfully attack and “destroy” the SAM positions and radars using AGM-88 HARMs. The MiG-29s meanwhile protect them from the air threats which consist of the MiG-21s trying to intercept the Tornados and the Eurofighters trying to “shoot down” the MiG-29s.
In the first week of the exercise, the Falcon 20s operating from Sofia also helped one of the two groups by creating electronic jamming and interference against the “enemy” group. This was a very good experience for the Bulgarian SAM and radar operators which had an excellent chance to practice in scenarios very close to actual combat where the enemy is very likely to use electronic countermeasures.