The Slovenian Armed Forces, the NATO Air Space Control Centre and Italian and Hungarian air forces on Thursday successfully completed a military exercise aimed at testing the functioning of airspace control in Slovenia, head of the National Air Defence Centre Blaz Pavlin told the press.
The system of airspace and traffic control ensures that all aircraft entering and exiting the airspace are detected and denied entrance if they are not authorised.
As a part of the exercise, the Pilatus PC-9 turbo-prop planes and Bell 412 helicopters of the Slovenian air forces "violated" the airspace. The system detected the intrusion and alarmed Italian and Hungarian interceptors.
They needed 12 minutes for the takeoff and intercepted the "intruders" 25 minutes after the initial alarm, Pavlin said.
It is very unlikely that Slovenian airspace could be threatened in such a way, said Pavlin, adding that fighter jets can fly across Slovenia from north to east in only three to four minutes.
Pavlin expressed hope that such exercises would be organised at least once a month. He said exercises can serve as training for aircraft used for controlling Slovenian airspace.
The exercise was also used for data transfer for Slovenian airspace and traffic control system, located at Brnik airport, and the air force units that are on stand-by, said Pavlin.
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