In June, EATC offered A400M cross-maintenance training to the participating nations of ETAP-T*. Germany, France and Spain accepted the offer and integrate their technicians, for training purposes, into each other’s maintenance team.
EATC’s main training objectives were to prepare the ground for future multinational A400M maintenance teams, as well as to define a common spare-parts deployment kit. The final objective was to establish, during the actual training, a process for tasking another nation’s military “Approved Maintenance Organisation**” based on scenarios (“what if” cases) defined in the EATC cross-maintenance document. The EATC experts presented the outcome to Major-General Schick, Commander EATC, when he visited ETAP-T on 14 and 15 June and informed him on the exchange of experience.
This training precedes EATC’s lighthouse project, aiming to foster interoperability among EATC A400M user nations***. In the future, EATC will extend its cross-maintenance efforts to A330 MRTT and C-130J aircraft. Cross-certification in the areas of flying (AAR, parachuting, cargo…) and maintenance will remain a key priority.
* European Tactical Airlift Programme-Training
** An Approved Maintenance Organisation in the context of aviation is similar to a certified garage where you bring in a car for inspection while retaining all warranties and liabilities.
*** Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain