NATO AGS Force Intel Support Squadron

NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Force (NAGSF), Intel Support Squadron — "Phoenix"/MAGMA · Allied · 2021-2022

Stood up at Naval Air Station Sigonella in September 2015, the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance Force flies five NATO-owned RQ-4D Phoenix remotely piloted aircraft — the red raptor rising from the erupting slopes of Mount Etna on this patch, above a fleet whose radio callsign prefix is MAGMA. Its intelligence element crews the Mission Operations Support Centre at the Main Operating Base, turning MP-RTIP radar returns into wide-area ground picture for the whole Alliance; the aircraft reached initial operational capability in February 2021 and the last of the system was handed over to the Force in March 2022. This example was presented by NATO to the U.S. North and West Africa Response Force at Sigonella around 2021-2022, when the SETAF-Africa-led crisis response force staged its readiness exercises from the same Sicilian flight line. In September 2023 the AGS Force was redesignated the NATO Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Force, retiring the "NATO AGS FORCE" title worn on this tab.