L’exerciseAPEX(Air Policing Exercise), organized in May 2026 jointly by the French Air and Space Force and theAir Force Italian, offers a striking insight into the profound changes affecting European air defense. This bilateral maneuver, led by the Air Defense and Air Operations Command (CDAOA), is part of a logic of reinforced interoperability, dictated by the very nature of contemporary threats, which sovereignly ignore borders national.
A training device with multiple operational dimensions
TrainingAPEXÂ mobilizes as a priority the fighter crews and command centers of the two nations. On the French side, operations planning is carried out from the Air Center for Planning and Conduct of Air Operations and Air Defense (CAPCODA), located at air base 942 at Lyon-Mont Verdun. Italy, for its part, orchestrates its actions from the Air and Space Operations Preparation Center (ASOPC).
The scenario selected simulates the hijacking of a “Renegade” type civilian aircraft – the NATO designation for any aircraft capable of being used as a weapon – requiring the immediate engagement of the surveillance, detection and command chains of the two countries. This scenario tests not only the responsiveness of the crews, but above all their ability to guarantee a smooth transfer of authority at the precise moment when the aircraft crosses an air border. French Rafale Cs and Italian Eurofighter Typhoons are thus jointly engaged in identification, escort and interception missions, in close coordination with the detection and control centers (CDC) of the two nations, all integrated into the flow of civil air traffic – an additional constraint which heightens considerably the realism of the exercise To find out more about the system as presented by the Ministry of the Armed Forces, the official page of the APEX exercise details the conditions of this training.
The strategic objectives of the APEX exercise
At the heart of the device,APEXpursues a structuring objective: to consolidate the multinational coordination mechanisms essential to the management of an air threat evolving in a dense cross-border environment. In the European context, where the promiscuity of civil and military traffic requires constant vigilance, permanent coordination between air traffic organizations from different states is no longer an option but an operational necessity.
The training also focuses on consolidating common command procedures, sharing the air situation and transfer of authority between allies. These technical aspects, which one could wrongly consider secondary, in reality constitute the invisible basis of any truly effective military cooperation: without a common language, without shared protocols, the best political intentions remain a dead letter in the heat of the action.
Preparation for taking command of the Allied Response Force
More broadly, this training is part of the operational preparation dynamic linked to France’s upcoming takeover of the Allied Response Force (ARF), NATO’s allied reaction force. This perspective gives the exerciseAPEXÂ a scope which largely transcends the strictly bilateral Franco-Italian framework.
The ARF constitutes one of the cardinal instruments of Atlantic deterrence, designed to intervene quickly across the entire spectrum of threats. Mastery of cross-border air defense procedures therefore represents an essential prerequisite for assuming this responsibility within the Alliance, and this is precisely what each edition of APEX consolidates.
The gradual extension of the APEX concept in Europe
After Spain and Switzerland, this new edition conducted with Italy illustrates the CDAOA’s resolute desire to extend cross-border interoperability across the continent. The approach is not accidental: it reveals a strategy for methodical construction of an integrated air defense ecosystem, built alliance after alliance, exercise after exercise.
The multiplication of these bilateral maneuvers responds to an implacable operational logic. In a context where air threats can arise from any point on the continent, the capacity for coordination between European neighbors is no longer a luxury but a vital requirement. These training sessions make it possible to harmonize procedures and to optimize reaction times – two parameters on which the outcome of an interception depends, in a real situation. This dynamic of military cooperation between member states is in line with the ambitions discussed in forums such as FED 2025, the forum which connects armies and industrialists.
The technical and human challenges of interoperability
The exercise also highlights the considerable challenges posed by interoperability between separate weapon systems and chains of command. Operating the French Rafale and the Italian Eurofighter in the same theater of operations requires rigorous harmonization of communication procedures, identification codes and engagement protocols – so many technical details whose slightest divergence can, in a critical situation, generate equivocations with formidable consequences.
This technical complexity is accompanied by equally decisive human issues. The crews must appropriate the procedures of their counterparts, understand their operational constraints and adapt to their operating methods. The cultural and linguistic dimension, too often relegated to the rank of an accessory consideration, frequently constitutes the limiting factor of joint operational effectiveness: understanding the other, in the urgency of an interception, is as much a matter of training as of political will.
