The Air Chiefs of the EATC Participating Nations (PN) came together at Eindhoven Air Base to negotiate about Europe’s future in military air transport matters. The 8th MATraC meeting (Multinational Air Transport Committee) led by Belgian Air Chief Claude van de Voorde took several important decisions.
For the EATC personnel most interesting was the confirmation of the new peacetime establishment (PE) PE 2014 with 189 posts - as Spain will join EATC upcoming July.
Another important decision - among others - was to implement a multinational working group for the accession of Italy to the EATC (ITA AWG). It was furthermore decided, that the ITA AWG will be lead by an EATC flag officer, while three Italian senior officers will soon liaison within EATC premises in order to start preparations for the planned accession. This requires some efforts on the Italian side e.g. with regard to the shared budget, the personnel to be deployed and the Italian IT-configuration that has to cope with EATC’s MEAT-standards.
Italy will be, after Luxembourg and Spain, the third European nation to join the founding nations of the EATC. Today their modern AT- fleet consists of 37 tactical and strategic assets (Lockheed C-130 J, Alenia C-27 and Boeing KC-767) as well as 27 aircraft dedicated to VIP- transport, liaison and training (Airbus 319, Dassault Falcon 900/50 and Piaggio 180).
Words: Norbert Thomas
Pictures: Italian Air Force, EATC
