Colonel Luca Vitali handed over the command to Colonel Ivan Mignogna
The ceremony was presided over by Colonel Franco Merlino, commander of the Transition Support Unit – Center of Shindand, on behalf of General Michele Pellegrino, Commander of the Regional Command West, The multinational command based on the mechanized brigade Aosta that operates in the western part of Afghanistan.
In his farewell speech, Colonel Vitali wanted to emphasize how, “In Shindand, men and women of different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds work together for a clear and shared goal: to build the foundations of a better and safer future for Afghanistan.”. The collaboration with American and Hungarian partners in the process of building a fully independent Afghan military aviation capable of meeting Afghanistan’s security requirements has been “The true added value of the mission”.
L’Italian Air Advisory Team It is a unit of the Italian Air Force that, since November 2, 2010, operates within the framework of NATO Air Training Command – Afghanistan (NATC-A). In particular, the team of the Italian Air Force operates at the Afghan air base in Shindand, within the 838th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group (AEAG) of the US Air Force, which, together with the equivalent groups deployed in Kabul and Kandahar, forms the operational structure of the NATC-A Command.
The advisor The Air Force, together with the American and Hungarian partners present in Shindand, have the task of developing and consolidating the local Afghan leadership to manage independently the Shindand Air Wing (SAW), that is the unit of the’Afghan Air Force (AAF) designated as the leading training hub for the entire Afghan aviation. Specifically, the Italian personnel, 35 of them officers and non-commissioned officers “advisor”coming from different departments of the Air Force, it carries out advising activities aimed at developing autonomous management capabilities and technical-professional skills in all the typical sectors of a flight squadron or an training unit: aerial operations, logistics, administrative and financial management, infrastructure management, meteorological forecasts, firefighting, force protection, maintenance, food service, billeting, medical clinic.
