Tunis – Today, Tunis kicks off the international air defense exercise that sees the Italian Air Force fly alongside its colleagues from Algeria, France, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia. The event is a special training part of the ‘”Initiative 5 + 5″ activities, agreed upon in 2004. Since then, Western Mediterranean countries have engaged in the promotion of cooperation on issues of security and defense policy (such as maritime surveillance, training, civil defense, search and rescue and the crucial issue of airspace surveillance and defense). A military transport plane, in this case a Tunisian one, will simulate being a civilian aircraft gone “renegade” – that is to saw a civilian aircraft that is either arriving or transiting through national airspace and whose conduct is potentially dangerous due to a possible terrorist attack. (9Colonne)
