Training continues at the Aerocooperation School in Guidonia for inter-force military personnel destined to operate in hostile search and rescue missions and personnel recovery.
The training course, open to personnel from all armed forces, is divided into two phases. The first phase, purely theoretical, takes place at the School and involves the study of notions and concepts governed by sector publications and TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) applied in real operations. A second, practical phase consists of an exercise at an operational unit of the Air Force where the knowledge acquired is tested “in the field,” also with the use of flight assets, through the planning, preparation, and conduct of operations simulating the recovery of isolated personnel in conflict scenarios.
In this edition too, with 20 attendees from the operational departments of the various armed forces, sessions by sector experts from the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs are planned, as well as from international Centres of Competence in the field of Combat-SAR/Personnel Recovery such as the Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC), NATO's Deployable Air Command and Control Centre (DACCC) and the European Air Group (EAG).
During the course presentation, Air Division General Roberto Lamanna, commander of the Air Cooperation School, recalled how “Combat Search and Rescue operations – in the past understood as operational activities aimed at recovering isolated personnel, almost exclusively assimilated to the crews of aircraft shot down in hostile territory – have, in the current reality of modern operational theatres and within the broader scope of Personnel Recovery operations, assumed primary importance, with a direct impact on the success of the operation itself, on the morale of the contingent, and on public support.”.
The School of Air Cooperation is the joint military institute for specialist training, with a high technical and operational profile, in the field of interpreting remote sensing imagery (aerial and satellite) and in that of air-ground and air-naval cooperation.
The courses held at the School of Aerocooperation are open not only to military personnel of the Armed Forces, but also to personnel outside the Ministry of Defence and to military personnel from NATO and countries participating in the international Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme.
