The ETAP-C Day and Night 24-01 courses took place in Zaragoza Air Base from March 6 to March 22.

ETAP-C increases the European Air Forces interoperability, and the “know how” or “savoir faire” of that endless word, that is the military tactical airlift. Tactical aircrews have planned and executed inter-allies missions, performing engine running on/off loading of vehicles, medical evacuation in “hostile” environment, assault landings, combat offloads, personnel and cargo airdrops, non-combatant evacuations, etc.

After three hard working weeks, nine aircrews from six nations (Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Spain, Italy and Norway) graduated from the course.  Additionally, exchange officers from the USA, Hungary, France and UK, attended as crewmembers of their respective squadrons. They are now ready to execute complex missions in a semi permissive environment.

For this course, the airspace reservation has been widely extended, in order to utilize new airstrips and drop zones such as Huesca-Pirineos Airport, Valladolid Air Base and the aerodromes of Santa Cilia and Soria. Thanks to the support of our host nation, Spain, all participants could enjoy a non-comparable airspace and geography for their training.

The support of the Ejercito del Aire y del Espacio (Spanish Air and Space Force), through its Control and Command structure, its Fighters wings (providing support with Eurofighter and F-18 airplanes), and its deployable units as EADA and EZAPAC, have allowed to create a realistic war game. For the first time in a long time, the Ejercito de Tierra (Spanish Army) has provided personnel and vehicles to make this type of war-gaming even more realistic.

Even though this course has finished, the workload has not decreased in ETAC. All the lessons learned will be studied thoroughly in order to provide state of the art airlift training for future courses and projects by ETAC.

Next goal… ETAP-C 24-02 Element lead hosted by the French Air Force in the Orleans – Bricy 123 Airbase. See you there!