Iniochos 2025; variety in Hellenic skies

A fourship of Hellenic Air Force F-16s over Andravida during exercise Iniochos 25.

Report and photos by Robin Polderman

In early April, The Unit Report travelled to Greece to witness all the buzz at Andravida airbase, where the 2025 edition of exercise Iniochos took place.

For those who wonder what ‘Iniochos’ means; it is the Greek name for the Charioteer of Delphi statue, preserved in the Delphi Archaeological Museum, which depicts the victorious driver of a chariot race in Ancient Greece around 475 BC.

Located in the northwest part of the Peloponnese peninsula, Andravida airbase has played host to the Iniochos series of exercises since the late 1980s.

The airbase houses the Air Tactics Center (ATC) of the Hellenic Air Force (HAF), and is responsible for the planning and execution of the annual exercise. The ATC was established in July 1983, deemed necessary by the HAF due to the increase in operational training requirements for both air tactics as well as electronic warfare.

While initially being a Hellenic-only Combined Air Operations exercise, its scope has expanded and Iniochos has become an important multinational exercise with broad participation from across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The first international edition of Iniochos took place in April 2015, with the IDFAF (Israel) and the USAF taking part.

This year, a record number of international allies and partners joined the exercise which took place between 31 March and 11 April.

A brandnew Greek Rafale taking off from Andravida during Iniochos 25.

Participating nations and aircraft in Iniochos 2025:

• France (Mirage 2000D-RMV)

• Greece (F-4E-AUP, F-16C, Mirage 2000-5BG/EG, Rafale BG/EG, EMB380 AEW&C etc)

• India (Su-30MKI)

• Israel (G550 Nachshon Eitam)

• Italy (Tornado IDS & ECR)

• Montenegro (Bell 412EPI)

• Poland (F-16C)

• Qatar (F-15QA)

• Slovenia (PC-9M)

• Spain (F/A-18A+)

• United Arab Emirates (Mirage 2000-9DAE/DAD)

• United States (F-16C, KC-135R)

Bahrain, Cyprus, and Slovakia participated as observer nations.

Both the Hellenic Army and Navy also play a crucial role, contributing to complex and realistic scenarios over the exercise areas across Greece’s mainland and its surrounding seas.

An Italian Tornado IDS seen carrying an inert weapon below the fuselage.

Due to the success of previous editions of the exercise, the HAF had to let go of its ‘Single Base Operations’ concept, in place since 2013, solely due to the lack of space at Andravida. As a consequence, the HAF F-16s participating in Iniochos were forced to operate from nearby Araxos airbase. Besides the resident 335 and 336 Mira (squadron) operating the F-16 Block 52+, Araxos played host to F-16Vs of the 340 Mira, F-16C Block 50s of the 341 and 347 Mira, as well as Block 30 F-16Cs of the 330 Mira.

Furthermore, the two USAF AFRC KC-135s involved in the exercise were temporarily based at Elefsis airbase near Athens.

The exercise runs for two weeks, with participating aircraft usually arriving a week before the exercise starts to participate in familiarisation flights in assigned airspace, in particular the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR).

Ten F-16 aircraft deployed from Homestead to Greece to participate in Iniochos

The main focus of Iniochos is to provide participants with realistic training in a multi domain, realistic battle environment, in order to maximize their combat readiness along with their aircraft’s survivability.

To increase realism, the aircraft taking on the role of adversaries are always 4th Generation aircraft employing Beyond Visual Range (BVR) tactics and carrying modern Electronic Warfare and radar capabilities.

Opposing land- and sea forces employ a multi-layered Integrated Air Defence System (IADS),  meaning exercise participants can encounter both long- or medium range SAM systems, as well as Short-Range-Air-Defence (SHORAD) systems while approaching the target area. Some of these systems are mobile, and moving them around as the exercise evolves increases realism.

Greece's ageing Phantom fleet was very active during Iniochos, with a fourship taking part in the main COMAO.

The exercise scenario starts out as a localized territorial dispute and evolves into a full-scale international conflict in contested airspace.

During Iniochos, a wide variety of missions are flown in the air-to-air and air-to-surface domain, including High Value Airborne Asset Protection, Slow Mover Protection, CAS, Interdiction, and CSAR.

The morning wave is a COMAO (Combined Military Air Operations) involving a large number of assets, while the afternoon and evening usually see smaller aircraft packages take off.

After every mission a detailed reconstruction using specialized debrief software takes place.

Every event is assessed using multiple data sources including on- and off-board sensors, digital data, GPS-trackers, Link 16 and specifically designed shot assessment software.

The extensive debrief provides the participants with valuable feedback and lessons learned.

During the past year, various rumors floated around regarding the future of Iniochos. This due to the fact Andravida will be temporarily closed while construction work takes place in order to house the future Greek F-35 fleet.

In a recent statement, the HAF confirmed the relocation of the exercise to Araxos, but not before 2027. The edition for 2026 is therefore still planned to take place at Andravida and The Unit Report hopes to attend once more!