Decimomannu air base is the home of an Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation (ACMI) range, called the "Air Weapons Training Installation" (AWTI). It was established in 1960s by Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Canada. Since the "Deci" range was a NATO funded training facility, the founding countries had their share of slots allocated to them

The "Deci" range became active in the late 1970s and at that time was the only Cubic ACMI range to be located outside of the USA. The range was located at Sea being located off the west coast of Sardinia in a location that provided wonderful flying weather situated at the heart of the Mediterranean.

The German Air Force did not use all their allocated flying time over the range and started to look for other customer for the range. The Swiss Air Force managed to obtain some slots between 1985 and 1989, which allowed them to train supersonic air combat.

After the re-unification of Germany and the subsequent incorporation of the MiG 29s, all the available slots were used by the German Air Force again and Switzerland had to look for new facilities. They were found in the UK in the form of the BAe North Sea ACMI Range, (NSAR).