Hungary joins the group of nations that will send their military pilots to train in Italy
On Thursday 12 September, the Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force, Air Force General Luca Goretti, and the Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Hungarian Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Ferenc Kajári, signed a technical agreement on the training of military pilots.
The document was signed remotely, via video call between the offices of the two Generals, in Italy and Hungary.
The agreement provides for the sending of Hungarian military pilots to flight training courses in Italy at the 61st Wing, both at basic level (Phases 2 and 3 of the training process), at the Galatina base, and at advanced level (Phase 4) at the 212th IFTS Group (International Flight Training School), based on Decimomannu. The agreement also provides for the provision of courses for instructor pilots, including advanced levels.
The agreement provides for a gradual inclusion, in the coming years, of student pilots and flight instructors of the Hungarian Air Force (HUNAF), with a three-year schedule that will be agreed between the parties during dedicated meetings. In this way, Hungary also joins the increasingly large group of countries that have opted to train their military pilots in Italy, by virtue of the excellent training offer of the Air Force, both at the Galatina base and at the IFTS in Decimomannu: Saudi Arabia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Qatar, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Sweden.
The agreement comes into force on the date of signing and regulates all the courses of the training course described in the specific programs (both for attendees and flight instructors), provided by the 214th and 213th Flight Group, located on the grounds of Galatina and by the International Flight Training School on the grounds of Decimomannu airport. The agreement will have an indefinite duration. The arrival of the first Hungarian visitors is expected as early as next October.
The signing of the agreement provides the necessary regulatory, administrative and procedural framework that regulates all activities related to the provision of training to HUNAF personnel.
The signed agreement is further proof of the level of excellence achieved by the Armed Forces in the field of flight training, as well as a significant consolidation of cooperation with an important European partner.
General Goretti, before proceeding to sign the agreement, said: “I am extremely happy to sign this agreement and to be able to say to our Hungarian friends ‘Welcome aboard’. The International Flight Training School is a project that we started a few years ago, starting in a very cautious way, which is becoming bigger and more relevant, as evidenced by the numerous success stories that are accompanying its development. The IFTS is proving to be the ideal terrain for pilots to train as closely as possible to real-world challenges.”
The International Flight Training School was born from the strategic collaboration between the Italian Air Force and Leonardo for the creation of an advanced flight training center intended to be an international reference point in the training of military pilots starting from Phase IV (Advanced/Lead-In to Fighter Training). The IFTS makes use of a modular, very versatile syllabus, based on the innovative T-346A Integrated Training System, a particularly effective system for the training of pilots destined for a wide range of fighters of the latest generations, including the F-35, the Eurofighter and the Gripen. This real Air Campus is an example of collaboration and synergy for the Country System that aims to meet the growing demand of the Air Force and partner countries for the training of their pilots. In fact, the project is making it possible to double the current training offer through the creation of a new training center distributed between the Galatina and Decimomannu bases in Sardinia, home to the new IFTS campus. It is an articulated structure capable of accommodating students and technical staff, also equipped with accommodation areas, canteen, sports facilities, logistics-maintenance infrastructures capable of managing a fleet of 22 T-346A aircraft. An entire building is also dedicated to the highly advanced Ground Based Training System (GBTS), a modern training system based on the latest generation simulation systems.
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