Another successful edition of the European Tactical Airlift Programme - Training (ETAP-T 2019) took place from 17 to 28 June 2019. It was organised by the European Tactical Airlift Centre (ETAC) in Zaragoza (Spain) and run in close coordination with EATC.
ETAP-T 2019 was a huge success from many point of views.
First of all, 430 air and ground crews, mentors, trainers, experts and observers from twelve nations gathered at this unique rendezvous for airlift training. Austria joined ETAP-T for the first time with two crews and an aircraft. Upon an initiative by EATC, the US participated also for the first time with observers to ETAP-T.
- Germany A400M, C160, ground forces
- France C130J
- Italy C27J
- The Netherlands C130H
- Spain A400M
- Austria C130E
- Great Britain C130J
- Romania C27J
- Belgium only ground forces
- Czech Republic only mentor
- Poland only mentor
- United States observers
Italian observers from the Air Mobility Command also participated in preparation of next year’s edition in Italy.
EATC was vested again with key positions in the “command and control” structure of ETAP-T 2019. These position included the training supervisor, the chief plan, the chief of the maintenance operation centre and the chief CATO* cell. The trainees trained according to the “ETAP Tactics Technics and Procedures” manual, a complete and living instruction developed by the EATC.
87% of the training objectives were achieved. A total of 116 sorties out of 122 were flown, representing more than 236 flying hours. The aircraft performed up to two sorties per day to train air drops, low-level flights, landings on unpaved runways or threat reactions. 143 paratroopers and 32 tons of cargo were dropped.
ETAP-T training is à la carte allowing the nations to train in various fields of the air mobility domains : airlift, maintenance, CATO, parachuting etc ... ETAP-T 2019 included four “COMposite Air Operations” (COMAO) missions with the participation of several Spanish EF-18 and Eurofighters. Spanish, German and French participants also trained cross-maintenance in multinational teams. This is a first step to cross-maintenance between EATC’s A400M users. Read more in our next article!
Thanks to the joint collaborative effort and commitment of all actors, a challenging and realistic tactical scenario supported the training and this two-week airlift training enhanced interoperability between European air forces.