Flight training and training: these are the topics at the center of the meetings at the Air Force General Staff in Rome and at the 61st Squadron in Lecce On Thursday, July 11, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force, Air Force Brigadier General Luca GORETTI, received at Palazzo Aeronautica in Rome the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Qatar Emirate Air Force (Air Force of Qatar), Brigadier General Hazza Nasser AL-SHAHWANI, as part of the Airmen to Airmen Talks.
During the meeting, General Goretti and General Al Shahwani outlined the current cooperation between the Air Forces of the two countries, mainly related to the training and flight training of personnel of the Qatar Emiri Air Force, which already involves frontline personnel and training systems from the 46th Air Brigade of Pisa.
It was in this context that on Wednesday 10 July the Qatari delegation, accompanied by personnel from the Air Staff, made a stop at the 61st Flight Wing, the international flight school based at the Galatina/Lecce airport.
Welcomed by the base commander, Colonel Alberto Surace, the guests attended a detailed briefing that illustrated the stages through which the school’s flight training is developed and the training offerings available.
Subsequently, the senior officers visited the ITS (Integrated Training System) – T346, the integrated system on which the most advanced part of the training course planned for pilots destined for combat lines is developed: phase 4, also known as “Lead In-to Fighter Training”.
Within the GBTS (Ground Based Training System) building, which houses the system’s simulator section, particular attention has been drawn to the LVC (Live, Virtual and Constructive) philosophy, which allows participants to operate simultaneously and in combination in real flight (live) and on the various types of simulators (virtual), interacting with every type of force/threat generated by the computer (constructive).
The T-346A training system is not new to the Qatar Emiri Air Force: in November 2018, during the tour in the Middle East organized by the Air Force in cooperation with Leonardo Spa, and then also on April 15, 2019 in Lecce, representatives of the Qatari air force had the opportunity to appreciate the outstanding technological features of the most advanced training aircraft produced by the national aeronautical industry.
