The training of helicopter pilots will take place in 2010

(BRUSSELS2) The 26 Defense Ministers, who form the Board of Directors of the European Defense Agency, decided on Tuesday to launch a European training program for helicopter pilots, on the model of those developed in France, in Sainte-Léocadie, in September 2008, and in Gap, in March 2009 . The European program will start in 2010. It will consist of two exercises per year, one focused on individual training, the other on interoperability and operational tactics.

This project is in line with the one launched on a Franco-British initiative to increase, in the short term, the availability of helicopters for crisis management operations, in particular for IFAS in Afghanistan, which saw the establishment a "trust-fund" to finance the upgrading of Mi17 type helicopters to bring them to an operational level. It also complements the initiative launched by NATO at the end of October (1), a HIP Helicopter Task Force (which aims to develop assistance between a dozen countries of the Atlantic Alliance for pre-deployment training, control and command capabilities andt logistical support or financial assistance).

Basically, we jostle a bit in various initiatives for a problem that remains crucial. Europe still has a lot of helicopters in its hangars but few helicopters to deploy in theaters of operation...

(1) Czech Republic, Albania, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Slovakia Spain, Turkey and the UK

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(photo credit: DICOD - Gap training exercise)