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Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

First simulated deployment for the U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning IIs. Taken on Feb. 8, 2016 the following pictures feature six F-35A Lightning IIs belonging to the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES) from Edwards Air Force Base, California, arriving at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, for the fifth generation aircraft’s first simulated deployment […]

Russian RPK Light Machine Gun

The first European Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Course (EAATTC) of 2016 is taking place in Zaragoza Airbase, Spain, from 14 to 26 February. Aircraft and crews from Belgium, Spain, Germany and Poland, together with instructors from the European Air Transport Command (EATC), Italy and the staff of the European Defence Agency (EDA) are engaged in an intelligence driven programme that will see the crews complete complex multi-threat missions in a challenging winter mountain environment.  Additionally, for the first time, a selection of crews will operate in the same high threat conditions, but with the added burden of operating at night with sole reference to Night Vision Goggle (NVG) technology and the natural light of moon and stars.   

The training starts with academics sessions, followed by a challenging low level navigation exercise that allows a brief familiarisation of the area and the rough landing grounds before. Crews are faced with a seemingly familiar but fictitious scenario progressing from a surface-to-air to an air-to-air threats environment. As this edition of the EAATTC is also dedicated to the new advanced NVG course, the night crews are confronted with the same insurgent scenario as the daylight crews. Eight flights are planned for the NVG course.   

Background 

The European Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Course aims to provide air transport crews with a robust airlift tactics training syllabus in order to enhance interoperability between European air forces. It takes crews into a theatre-deployment mindset, exposing them to airland and airdrop missions in a tactically challenging environment. Emphasis is put on aircraft operations and on application of procedures in a changing environment. The EAATTC training series is an integral component of the wider 20-nation European Air Transport Fleet Partnership.

More information 

• EAATTC16-1 factsheet 
• Flickr album with pictures from the event (will be updated throughout the exercise)
• For updates on twitter use #EAATTC.

Officers belonging to the navies of Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Latvia and Poland visited SAES facilities.

The engineering and technology group SENER led the construction consortium on a turnkey project for YPFB, and participated in the inauguration ceremony, presided over by Evo Morales, president of the plurinational state of Bolivia.

The MOD operates a diverse range of ships and submarines worldwide, from nuclear-powered submarines carrying the UK's strategic deterrent, to aircraft carriers, frigates, destroyers, minehunters, fleet auxiliaries, patrol craft and small boats for op…

The UK Royal Navy has assigned a decommissioned Lynx helicopter of the Fleet Arm to HMS Raleigh to support the first-aid training conducted at the facility.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) shipyard has launched the US Navy's future San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, USS Portland (LPD 27).

A Russian Air Force Tu-214R is about to land at Latakia, Syria. The Tu-214R is a Russian ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance) aircraft. In other words, a quite advanced spyplane. As we have already explained here in the past, it is a special mission aircraft equipped with all-weather radar systems and electro optical sensors that produce […]