Sono entrato nella BASE MILITARE SEGRETA degli Eurofighter

Video from the channel Alberto Naska about Eurofighter Typhoon, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 45:38. Language: Italian. Video type: Onboard.

Italian YouTuber Alberto Naska visits the 4º Stormo of the Aeronautica Militare in Grosseto, on the occasion of the centenary of the Italian air force, to show what lies behind the Eurofighters that the base keeps on permanent alert. The tour covers the maintenance hangar, the avionics maintenance centre run by Leonardo, the flight equipment room, the flight line during a normal training day, the simulator and the "palazzina allarme", where he attends a scramble exercise.

In the hangar, technicians explain the forward canard foreplanes, which make the aircraft more manoeuvrable at the cost of aerodynamic instability, so the flight computer decides how to move the control surfaces; the countermeasure pods, the modular hardpoints, the jettisonable ventral fuel tank and the air intakes with movable lip. According to the technicians, around 80% of the structure is composite material, the aircraft weighs just over 11 t empty and reaches about 23 t at maximum load, and each engine delivers about 60 kN without afterburner and 90 kN with it. An electrician describes the battery and the APU that starts the aircraft, and at the avionics centre it is explained that each Eurofighter carries more than 50 avionics units, which are repaired in classified laboratories.

The pilots show the anti-g suit, which inflates above 2 g, the vest that compensates oxygen under positive pressure, the helmet and the survival kit. On the line, the pre-flight inspection carried out by the pilot himself is shown, along with a take-off with afterburner and the return from a mission with in-flight refuelling over the Tyrrhenian Sea. Naska tries the Leonardo simulator, taking off and landing with the instructor's help; the real cockpit is not filmed because it is classified. Next to the simulator, the ejection seat of an F-104 is on display.

The base keeps two aircraft armed around the clock, with two pilots and six specialists on 24-hour shifts just metres from the hangars. The pilots talk about the demanding selection process, the physiological limit around 9 g and survival training. The video ends with a simulated scramble in which two Eurofighters take off within minutes; the exact time is considered classified.