Friday 11 September - by EATC

Dutch Air Chief laid the foundation stone for the new EATC building on 10th September 2015.

On the occasion of its steering-board meeting on 10th September 2015, the EATC is also celebrating the construction of its future permanent building at Eindhoven Air Base.

Dutch Air Chief General Schnitger and Mr Job Dura, CEO of construction company Dura Vermeer, laid the foundation stone of the new EATC building. Expected to be ready for use by Summer 2016, this building will host the seven Participating Nations of the EATC, thus a total of over 220 personnel from the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy and Spain.

With the construction of the new building NLD has fulfilled the Host Nation’s offer made in 2007 to accommodate the EATC in an infrastructure tailored to its needs. The success of the EATC will be reflected in this new building : it offers the space for the new Participating Nations, Spain and Italy, that joined EATC last year.  

Established in September 2010, the EATC is today at the finish of its 5th year and has successfully developed into the leading organization within Europe for military Air Transport, Air-to-Air Refuelling and Aeromedical Evacuation.

For an overview of the achievements but also the way ahead of the EATC, click on the here:

23/06/2015 Armée de Terre

Les soldats de la 11e brigade parachutiste (11e BP), prennent actuellement part à l'exercice européen d'entraînement des avions de transport dans le domaine tactique (EATT 2015) au Portugal. Ils sont ainsi invités par les parachutistes portugais du 2e bataillon du Régimento Infantaria 10 de San Jacinto.

Le vendredi 19 juin 2015, après avoir échangé leurs voiles et sauté ensemble sur San Jacinto, les parachutistes français et portugais se sont vus remettre les brevets parachutistes portugais et français, première étape d'une série d'exercices tactiques qui se déroulent actuellement dans le ciel de San Jacinto.

02/06/2015 Armée de l'air

Le commandant de l’EATC (european air transport command - commandement européen du transport aérien) a rencontré le directeur de la sécurité aéronautique de l’état (DSAÉ), le vendredi 22 mai 2015, à Villacoublay.

La direction de la sécurité aéronautique de l’état a présenté ses activités au général Badia (Lutwaffe), commandant de l’EATC, accompagné du « Senior National Representative français », le colonel Kolm. Celles-ci concernent la mise en œuvre des normes européennes de navigabilité, les EMARs (european military airworthiness requirements), dans les programmes A400M et A330 MRTT. Le développement et l’application de ce corpus réglementaire visent à permettre une maintenance croisée des stocks de pièces mutualisés sur l’A400M entre la France et l’Allemagne d’une part, et la Grande Bretagne d’autre part.

L’EATC, opérationnel depuis 4 ans, exploite jusqu’à 223 avions de transport de 20 types différents, appartenant à 7 nations fondatrices dont la France, l’Allemagne, les Pays-Bas et la Belgique, rejointes depuis par l’Espagne, le Luxembourg et l’Italie. Cette exploitation commune permet de tirer le meilleur parti des flottes de chaque état-membre.

25 March – by EATC

The need for a highly professional training

While the fighter community has trained to operate together for years (e.g. Tactical Leadership Program (TLP), Flag exercises, large NATO exercises in European airspace, etc.), the same cannot be stated for Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR), without which a lot of fighter operations would not be possible. The lessons learned from Unified Protector over Libya in 2011 showed  that for a smooth multinational operation we need to train together in advance.

Moreover, the United States Forces are planning to deploy major parts of their AAR fleet out of Europe towards South East Asia, thus taking away a potential resource on AAR capacity on which the European Nations could always lean in the past. At the same time only 30 % of the EU member states (MSs) operate tanker aircraft (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK,).

To minimise this capability gap, EDA has implemented an AAR project team to deal with outcomes of four different institutions on AAR matters. One of those four pillars represents the Multi Role Transport Tanker/Air-to-Air Refuelling Operational Employment Working Group (OEWG) – led by the EATC. The OEWG’s general objective is to harmonize and - where necessary - to develop procedures and related processes to employ existing and future multi-role platforms in their dual AAR- and AT-role.

But what would a tanker be good for, without a well trained crew? This is where the European Air-to-Air Refuelling Training (EART) comes in, one important outcome of the cooperation between EDA and the EATC.

KC-767A AAR workstation

Background

The first EART was conducted in 2014. AAR assets from different EATC nations were already involved in the fighter exercise Frisian Flag (FF) in the years prior, but purely in a supporting role. In 2013 the question was brought up if the framework of the existing exercise could not be used to also train tanker needs. This led to two major changes in the tanker participation to FF: Firstly, all assets would be deployed to Eindhoven, thus simulating an operation in a location that cannot be supported from the respective home base; secondly, the tankers would not return to base as soon as the fighter did not require there support anymore, but stay in the area and train manoeuvres and procedures of their own.

Aim and objectives

The overall aim of EART is to train the participants (air and ground crews) to be able to run a tanker operation from a deployed operating base (DOB). This also includes training elements like multi tanker formation or different rendezvous procedures, which is not possible in day to day operations. During EART, the crews have the unique possibility to gain or regain their qualifications in a short amount of time and within a realistic scenario.

The 2015 edition

The 2015 edition of the European Air-to-Air Refuelling Training will again take place at Eindhoven Airbase for two weeks in April and support Frisian Flag. The emphasis will again be on working from a DOB in a multinational environment. This will be even more prominent in this year’s training since additionally to last year’s nations (Germany, Italy and the Netherlands) France will participate and other nations are planning to send observers to assess a future participation.

Participation in 2015

- France with C-135FR

- Germany with Airbus A310 MRTT

- Italy with Boeing KC-767A

- The Netherlands with KDC-10

Way ahead

The intent is that, in the future, EART can be hosted by different nations multiple times a year to support different national and international fighter exercises, thus increasing the training opportunities for AAR units and, at the same time, providing a standardised support for the European and NATO fighter community. In case of future operations, the AAR community will be better prepared.

Another outcome of the EDA AAR Project is the recognition that in NATO there was no dedicated multinational training for AAR Planners. In 2014, the NATO Command and Control Centres (CAOC), together with AIRCOM and JAPCC, developed the Specialized Heavy Air Refuelling Course (SHARC). The first official course was held in February 2015. The course incorporates challenges replicating scenarios that the student will see in a large scale exercise or operation. It ensures standardization and continuous improvement within the NATO AAR community.

In 2015, EART will integrate “hands on” training for graduates of SHARC, which can be considered as a logical follow-up of this course as it will keep them proficient and prepare them for “real world” operations. This will be the first time that SHARC graduates participate in a live flying exercise.

Pictures: German, Dutch, Italian and French Air Force Media

16/03/2015 Armée de l'air

Jeudi 12 mars 2015, la promotion 2014 de l’École militaire de l’air de Salon-de-Provence a visité l’European Air Transport Command (EATC - commandement du transport aérien européen) à Eindhoven (Pays-Bas).

Après avoir été accueillis par le colonel Jim Kolm, représentant national français au sein de cette structure internationale, les aspirants de l’École militaire de l’air ont visité le quart opérationnel de l’EATC (Mission Controlling). Une table ronde leur a ensuite permis d’échanger sur la dimension internationale d’une carrière d’officier dans l’armée de l’air. Ils ont pu discuter avec du personnel de l’EATC au sujet de la planification et de la conduite des missions de transport aérien dans un contexte international. Ce fut ainsi l’occasion de les sensibiliser aux objectifs et contraintes opérationnelles des missions menées conjointement, ainsi qu’aux importantes avancées en terme d’interopérabilité dans le transport aérien (logistique, entraînements, dimension aéromédicale, etc.), l’aérolargage et le ravitaillement en vol.

Au cours de cette journée, les élèves ont également visité le Movement Coordination Centre Europe (MCCE), organisation voisine et complémentaire de l'EATC, en charge de la coordination de missions de transport air, terre ou mer.

L’EATC en bref

Inauguré le 1er septembre 2010, l’EATC est un commandement multinational dont le projet est né en décembre 1999 d’une volonté franco-allemande de mutualiser les moyens des pays membres dans le domaine du transport aérien militaire. Composé de la France, l’Allemagne, la Belgique, les Pays-Bas, le Luxembourg, l’Espagne et récemment de l’Italie, il est en charge du contrôle opérationnel des appareils de transport aérien militaire des sept pays membres et de l’harmonisation des procédures. A ce jour, la flotte EATC regroupe une grande variété d’avions tactiques et stratégiques, pour un total de 189 aéronefs. Une fois le contrôle opérationnel des aéronefs italiens totalement transféré, l’EATC représentera 75% de la capacité européenne de transport aérien.

9 March - by EATC

Since July last 2014, Spain is member of the EATC - although its fleet operated yet on national assets. This has now changed, because since 09 March 2015 the sixth EATC nations transferred 25 Air Transport assets via Transfer of Authority (ToA) to EATC OPCON (Operational Control).

The first Spanish aircraft to fly on EATC OPCON was a Lockheed C-130H “Hercules” from Air Transport Wing 31, stationed in Zaragoza. It departed this morning from Torrejon Airbase (near Madrid) via Algeria to Libreville.

The consequences of the Spanish ToA

The accession of Spain comprises a bigger fleet for the EATC nations and more types of aircraft. This entails more Air Transport Requests and therefore more cross-national possibilities. Besides this, Spain’s geographical situation and its regular routes provide interesting synergy opportunities to make the EATC’s Pooling and Sharing initiative more effective. In numbers this means 25 additional aircraft for EATC use, three extra Airbases and 30 EATC positions to be filled by Spain within EATC.

In total, the EATC assigned air fleet now consists of 189 aircraft.

By the use of the below links, find some overview of the newly assigned Spanish aircraft types as well as their Airbase locations.

New EATC assigned Spanish aircraft:
-    Lockheed C-130H and KC-130H  
-    CASA C-295             

-    Boeing B707/KC707  

Spanish Airbases

- Air Transport Wing 35, Getafe

- Air Transport Wing 31, Zaragoza

- Air Mixed Group 47, Torrejon   

Thursday 5 March - EATC

The Transfer of Authority (ToA) of the first German A400M under EATC Operational Control (OPCON) has taken place.

The A400M with the tail number 54+01 is operated by the Air Transport Wing 62 located at Wunstorf Airbase near Hannover. The aircraft was handed over to the German Air force three month ago and is now ready to take on the first EATC tasks.

In total Germany will operate a fleet of 40 A400M in the years to come. The fleet will enhance the EATC capabilities in air transport considerably.

The French Air Force already operates six A400M – of which five are EATC assigned.

Few days ago a French A400M successfully completed its first mission to New Caledonia and back.

10 February 2015 by Ltc Ballinger - EATC

Towards more interoperability and multinational cooperation for EATT 2015

Paratroopers are widely known by the public as soldiers with specific skills, jumping out of airplanes, fully equipped and ready to start their next mission. 

If one is interested in history, one might know more; especially that paratroopers played an important role during some of the most well-known battles of the last century, such as the battle of the Bulge, Dien Bien Phu or the battle for Kolwezi. The most popular paratrooper of the last century is most probably Private John Steele, who landed during D-Day on the roof of the church in Saint-Mère l’Eglise.

Nowadays military parajumping is undergoing major changes. Due to recent cuts in budgets and aging European Air Transport fleets, less aircraft are available for training. Moreover, today’s operations are multinational, which is a strong incentive for military paratroopers to consider the multinational dimension.

This year and for the first time in the history of the EATC a panel dedicated to cross parajumping has met in the framework of the EATT panel meetings.

The goal of the “Para Panel” is to prepare the paratroopers of the different nations for future common operations.

In June in BEJA, paratroopers coming from the EATT 2015 participating nations will use this opportunity to train on the aircraft of the different nations: for example, French paratroopers are going to certify that their French parachutes can be used on Belgian C-130 for static line jumps.

Once the various equipment of the different participating nations will be qualified on another nation’s aircraft, that aircraft will be used for common training and operations. In the future, this will allow the EATC to choose the best asset available within the EATC for airdrop mission in order to optimize effectiveness and efficiency of air transport operations.

Tomorrow the paratroopers will be joined by other specialists coming from the EATT 15 participating nations. They will all meet at the EATC in Eindhoven in order to prepare the last details for the most important European Air Transport Training of the year.

9 February 2015 by EATC

According to a Airbus Defence and Space press release, the German Air Force (GAF) has received a Full Flight Simulator (FFS) for the A400M aircraft at Air Transport Wing 62 in Hannover/Wunstorf.

The training device entered service at Wunstorf Airbase on 8 January and will be used to train about 60 GAF crews in its first three years in operation. Developed by Airbus Defence and Space and manufactured by Thales, it is a full replica of the A400M cockpit.

Airbus Defence and Space will deliver to the GAF also additional training tools, such as

– a Flat Panel – Flat Training Device (FP–FTD), which is a cockpit partial simulator to train pilots prior to the FFS training;

– a Cargo Hold Trainer (CHT), which is a full 1:1 scale replica of the A400M cargo hold used to train loadmasters with real loading and unloading tasks as well as to train parachutists;

– and a Cockpit Maintenance Operations Simulator (CMOS) which replicates the aircraft in 3D images and provides maintenance procedure simulations.

These three training devices are planned to be delivered by mid-2015.

08/12/2014 Capitaine Karim DJEMAI - Armée de l'air

19.09.2014 by Virginie Flawinne – MIL.be

Le premier cours de transport aérien tactique à l’échelle européenne va enfin voir le jour. L’European Advanced Airlift Tactical Training Course (EAATTC) sera organisé à Saragosse, en Espagne, du 22 septembre au 3 octobre 2014. Créé par l’European Air Transport Command (EATC), le cours a été élaboré par des instructeurs belges, allemands, espagnols, français, italiens et néerlandais.

Avec ce nouveau cours, l’Europe dispose enfin de ressources pour former le personnel du transport aérien tactique selon les normes OTAN. Auparavant, ceux qui voulaient suivre une telle formation et valider leurs compétences devaient se rendre dans le Missouri (USA), où s’organise l’AATTC, référence mondiale victime de son succès. Loin d’entrer en concurrence avec ce dernier, l’organisation de ce cours permettra de former plus de personnel.

Un stage de (re)qualification du personnel de transport tactique avait été organisé par la Défense belge à Toulouse en avril-mai 2014. L’Airlift Block Training (ABT-14) avait en effet invité la France à participer aux entraînements des équipages C-130. Avec l’EAATTC, il s’agit du premier cours d’ampleur réellement multinationale en Europe. Sa concrétisation débouche sur une organisation et des syllabus musclés. Le but est d’améliorer l’interopérabilité et la faculté de survie du personnel d’avions de transport en environnement hostile. Au terme de ce stage, tous les participants sont censés acquérir (ou recouvrer) le statut combat-ready.

Il existait déjà un cours européen permettant aux différentes nations de s’entraîner ensemble : l’EATT (European Air Transport Training). L’EAATTC se veut être une version améliorée et plus ambitieuse, axée sur la tactique, qui s’organisera quatre fois par an, toujours à Saragosse. Sans porter atteinte à la population locale, ce cours permettra au transport aérien militaire européen d’évoluer vers une excellence opérationnelle.

Friday 5 September  Pascal Ballinger/Norbert Thomas - EATC

New air transport training course created by EATC

Under the umbrella of EDA and with the strong cooperation of the Spanish Air Force, the subject matter experts from the EATC plan the ambitious objective to organize a European Advanced Airlift Tactical Training Course (EAATTC) - first multinational of its kind in Europe.
This European counterpart of the well-known AATTC - organized by the United States Air Force - will open for the first time this year at the Spanish Air Force Base in Zaragoza from 21 September to 03 October 2014.

Similar – but different: European and American approach

The European AATTC is however not to be seen as competitor to the US AATTC. Instead for European Air Forces, a course organized in Europe makes further slots available, because the US course is somehow a victim of its own success: and the European Air Forces have difficulties to get the slots they asked for in the past. Moreover, the deployment to the USAF Advanced Airlift Tactical Training (AATTC), which is organized on a regular basis by the 139th Airlift Wing at Rosecrans Air National Guard Base in Saint Joseph, Missouri, charged a lot of flying hours just by crossing the Atlantic (and back). From this perspective time had come to implement a European way. With regard to the EATT held in Zaragoza 2012 and 2013, this training spot in Spain has proven its suitability in many ways. An important advantage of this location leads to the fact, that there is enough air space over Spain to train effective – and to not harm citizens with aircraft noise.
As the US course was identified by the European participants as tailored to their needs, the European counterpart will stay in many ways identical or similar to the AATTC – a balanced compromise of American expertise and the European will to keep up interoperable standards for all EAATTC participating nations.

EATC mindset

The European syllabus has been developed by the EATC - but Participating Nations will validate their students actions during the course in September. One of the main objectives of EAATTC is to provide a robust airlift tactics training syllabus to allow aircrews to increase interoperability as well as survival in non-permissive environments.
The first week of the new course will start with some tactical awareness academics spread over four  half days. Moreover some basic sorties shall be flown during that first week.
During the second week, the complexity of the mission will augment, including low level flights, threat reaction and max effort landings.
A total of 9 flights are planned – flight Nr. 8 is a final check with flight Nr. 9 as graduation flight itself.
At the end of the course, crews will be awarded a graduation certificate, based on a number of flights and events fulfilled.
As described above, participating crews (pilots) are enabled to reach a “combat ready” - comparable status. This already shows, that EAATTC is in fact a different course with regard to EATT, where already experienced crews fly with each other.

From EATT to EAATTC

A few years ago, the European Air Forces mainly met during large fighter exercises or during training courses in the United States. There were only few national alternatives - and even less European.
With the organization of the first European Air Transport Training (EATT) from 4 till 15 June 2012 in Zaragoza (Spain) this has slightly changed: by pooling resources from different nations (BE, CZ, DE, ES, FR and NL), a contributing framework of different institutions  (EAG, EATC, EDA, JAPCC), but also with the contents from the US (AATTC), as a kind of mentor in aviation and air transport competence. During the first EATT seven aircraft from six nations flew day and night missions to (re)qualify crews in a variety of disciplines. Training objectives were achieved for crews as well as for Intelligence- (multinational Intel Cell) and Maintenance (multinational cross servicing team) participants.

A new challenge – and a new chance

The new course is a cooperation within EATCs Functional Division: Its Employment Branch and its  TREX-Branch (Training and Exercises) laid together all their ideas, knowledge and experience to  implement a course, that shall be offered several times per year – and therefore is planned to remain in Spain.
After its first “validation course” in 2014, three courses EAATTC per year are planned during the building-up phase 2015 to 2018. Full operational capability (FOC) of EAATTC is foreseen for 2019.
And after FOC, four courses per year - involving six aircrafts per course - are foreseen to take place at Zaragoza Air Base.
With this achieved, EATC has successfully implemented three major training events in Europe – for Europe. The important stepping stones as of EATT, EART and now EAATTC will allow European military AT to act more effective in the future – with a true European mindset and own competence due to the new trained skills.