WHY ADVERSARY AIR MATTERS MORE THAN EVER
EXPERIENCE IS THE DECISIVE WEAPON
With more than two decades of operational flying experience and a further ten years in senior industrial leadership roles, Thomas Beringer represents a rare blend of frontline credibility and strategic business acumen. A former German Air Force F-4F Phantom pilot, he spent 23 years in uniform before transitioning to the defence industry, where he held management positions at Airbus and Hensoldt, working on Eurofighter development and advanced sensor programs.
Today, as Vice President Europe and Managing Director of Top Aces in Germany, Thomas is responsible for the company’s European business, including operational delivery and financial performance. In this role, he brings together operational insight and industrial efficiency — two worlds that increasingly need to converge as European armed forces face a rapidly changing security environment.
In this interview, Thomas explains why realistic adversary air training has become a cornerstone of modern readiness, how joint and multi-domain training is evolving, and why experience — not just technology — remains crucial in preparing aircrews for the conflicts of the future.
You described the new contract as a major milestone in the long-standing partnership between Top Aces and the German Armed Forces. How does adversary air training contribute to Germany’s operational readiness in today’s changing security environment?
Top Aces offers a capability that is unique in Europe. We are the only civil-certified service provider delivering advanced adversary air capabilities that can evolve in response to the requirements of individual nations. Advanced Adversary Air allows Air Force crews and aircraft life to be more targeted on core training missions, enabling more and better focused readiness training at a much lower cost than employing frontline fighter aircraft and pilots as adversaries.
Our exclusive, open architecture Advanced Aggressor Mission System enables the rapid integration of new sensors into our aircraft, ensuring our systems remain scalable and adaptable at any time.
This means we can integrate additional radars, infrared sensors or other emitters as required. These capabilities are currently fielded on our A-4 and F-16 fleets and soon also on the Alpha Jet. While the F-16 is not yet operating in Europe, Top Aces is aiming to secure its first European F-16 customer and the corresponding U.S. export license.
The contract covers services for the Air Force, Army and Navy. How do you design adversary air training to support joint and multi-domain operations?
We receive our tasking directly from our customer — in this case the Bundeswehr — through a central coordination structure that also defines priorities. It is not for Top Aces to decide which mission is more important.
What we provide is the full spectrum of capability: advanced red air training for the air force, maritime support for naval forces, and JTAC training for ground troops. These activities increasingly take place in mixed formations. Looking ahead, we also see strong potential in expanding into operational-level training, where entire systems — including ground-based emitters and integrated networks — are represented in large-scale exercises. This is where true multi-domain realism is created.
Top Aces operates A-4N Skyhawks with AESA radar and modernized Alpha Jets. What threat profiles and tactical scenarios are you able to replicate, and why is this level of realism so important today?
The answer is largely defined by the customer. Each nation has specific threat scenarios it wants to train against, based on its strategic outlook and the experience level of its crews. Our aircraft and sensors are capable of replicating a wide range of modern threats within their performance envelopes.
We remain deliberately agnostic when it comes to geopolitical attribution. Our role is not to define the enemy, but to provide credible, modern threat representation. To do that, we continuously modernize our mission capabilities so that active-duty aircrews can train against the latest tactical replicas. Realism matters because only realistic training exposes pilots to the complexity, ambiguity and pressure they will face in real operations.
What defines success in outsourced adversary air training: readiness, training quality, availability or cost efficiency? And where do you see the greatest innovation potential?
Success is a combination of all four. Availability is a contractual cornerstone for us: our aircraft are guaranteed to be available to the customer year-round, including weekends and holidays. That reliability is essential.
Training quality comes from experience. We employ highly experienced former fighter pilots who bring decades of operational knowledge into every mission. This ensures that expertise developed over many years remains within the armed forces ecosystem instead of being lost to other industries.
Cost efficiency is also critical. We operate under a fundamentally different cost model than a modern air force, which means our flight hours cost only a fraction of those of frontline fighter aircraft, while still delivering highly credible threat replication.
In terms of innovation, the next steps are clear: virtual wingmen, which are already being test flown on our F-16s, and the integration of collaborative combat aircraft. Live, virtual and constructive training environments will define the future, and we are actively preparing to integrate larger, faster unmanned systems that reflect realistic future adversary capabilities.
How have requirements evolved over the years, and what distinguishes the current contract from earlier phases of cooperation?
Germany was our first major customer in Europe and we are very grateful for that. That partnership was instrumental in enabling our European growth. Over the past decade, both the number of contracted flight hours and the complexity of requirements have increased significantly.
When we started, we operated a very basic fleet without radar. Today, advanced sensors and emission capabilities are a baseline requirement. This reflects a clear shift towards more realistic and more demanding training objectives.
The pace of development has accelerated markedly since 2022. The security landscape in Europe has changed, and with it the expectations placed on training. There is greater urgency, greater openness and a clear understanding that readiness requires sustained investment. Our guiding principle remains the same: Experience Matters — because only those who have spent years in operational environments truly understand what effective training must deliver.
Beyond Germany, Top Aces has already conducted proof-of-concept deployments and short-term training activities in the Netherlands and Denmark. Both countries remain part of ongoing discussions as the company looks to expand its long-term European presence. While we’re training additional customers in Europe – and many have expressed interest – customer confidentiality limits further disclosure. The overall demand for adversary air services across Europe is currently described as exceptionally strong.
Interview: Katerina Urbanova
Photo credit: Aviation PhotoCrew
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