Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. On Saturday, 23rd September, Lieutenant Edoardo E. successfully completed the initial qualification course on the F35A aircraft. For the young Lieutenant, achieving this milestone certifies the extremely high level of skills acquired in the complex flight regimes specific to the F35 aircraft. For the Italian Armed Forces, this young officer from the Air Force has for the first time reached the ambitious objective of qualifying a pilot on a fifth-generation aircraft, who comes directly from flight school, with no prior operational experience.
The event, of particular importance for the subsequent phases of the F-35 programme's capability and personnel consolidation, was attended by Air Division General Maurizio Cantiello, Defence and Defence Cooperation Attaché at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C. General Cantiello, speaking at the Graduation ceremony, bore witness to the importance of the multinational synergies that take place at Luke AFB (AZ), realising the operational conversion group's mission: ’Develop professional fighter pilots and leaders for the USAF and Partners“. The General highlighted the extremely high maturity and professionalism demonstrated by our personnel and the effectiveness of the upstream training pipeline, which enables a young military pilot to operate the world's most advanced aircraft.
The Pilot Training Center at Luke is, in fact, a prestigious cooperative enterprise, highly qualifying, within which the United States and Partner Countries share human resources and means, aimed at training pilots through shared tactics, functional to the fulfilment of a joint commitment within NATO.
The Italian unit stationed at Luke AFB reports to the Italian Military Representation in Eglin (FL), a joint-service organisation that manages training and instruction courses on the F35 aircraft for both the Air Force and the Navy personnel.
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Luke AFB, Arizona. On Saturday, 23 September, Lieutenant Edoardo E. completed the initial qualification course on F35A aircraft. For the young lieutenant, the achievement of this milestone certifies the very high level of skills attained in the complex flight forms specific to the F35. For the Italian Armed Forces, the young Air Force officer has, for the first time, achieved the ambitious goal of qualifying on a fifth-generation aircraft, a pilot coming directly from flight schools, with no previous operational experience.
The event, of particular importance for the subsequent phases of capability and personnel consolidation associated with the F-35 programme, was attended by Air Force General Maurizio Cantiello, Defence and Defence Cooperation Attaché at the Italian Embassy in Washington, DC. General Cantiello, speaking at the Graduation ceremony, testified to the importance of the multinational synergies occurring in the reality of Luke AFB (AZ) base, realising the mission of the operational conversion group: ’Develop professional fighter pilots and leaders for the USAF and Partners.“ The General highlighted the high maturity and professionalism demonstrated by our personnel and the success of the upstream training chain, which allows a young military pilot to operate the most advanced aircraft in the world.
The Pilot Training Centre at Luke is a prestigious reality of cooperation, highly qualifying, within which the United States and partner countries share human resources and means, aimed at training pilots through shared tactics, functional to the fulfillment of a joint commitment in the NATO environment.
The Italian cohort stationed at Luke AFB depends on the Italian Military Representation in Eglin (FL), an inter-force entity that manages training and education courses on F35 aircraft for their respective personnel, covering both the Air Force and the Navy.
