Spanish Major General José Luis Ortiz-Cañavate Levenfeld was recently appointed Deputy Commander of EATC. Let’s hear about his impressions after 100 days in office.
General Ortiz, you were the Commander of the Spanish Air Mobility Command before you joined EATC. Now that you are standing on the other side of the fence, what have you discovered that you didn’t know before about EATC?
When I was the Spanish Air Mobility Commander, I had the opportunity to appreciate the high-quality job that the EATC performs in coordinating, planning and controlling our national air transport fleet.
As EATC’s Deputy Commander, I get a more thorough and deeper knowledge of what EATC is really capable of. And I am impressed about how EATC deals with the difficulty to manage a wide spectrum of missions flown by a very diverse fleet.
EATC’s member nations share standardized operating manuals and have similar regulations. But on the other hand, they are a group of nations that are structured and are acting in quite different ways. And yet EATC is able to overcome all obstacles and obtain synergies in a very effective and efficient way for the air mobility assets owned by our seven air forces and under EATC’s operational authority. All of this is possible, among others, due to the high quality and availability of the EATC staff. Therefore, it is a great honour for me to belong to this exceptional multinational command and acting as its deputy commander.
You have also been appointed Director of Operations. What are your priorities for the coming years?
I have two major priorities. My first priority is and will always be to achieve excellence in the operational products that we deliver to the EATC nations. The order for an air mission is the final result carried out on a daily basis by EATC’s Operational Division. Its perfect preparation in time and form is paramount to success.
On the other hand, EATC is planning to develop new concepts on how to cooperate deeper with international defence organisations, mainly EU and NATO. Thus, my second main priority for the coming years is to adapt EATC's operational structure and procedures to accommodate them to the new concepts that we develop.
What is EATC to you in one sentence?
The paradigm of pooling and sharing among European armed forces.