On Saturday 1 August, the closure coincided with the establishment of the Italian Military Representation (RMI) In addition to the standard activities required for the operation of an RMI, the assigned personnel, who were part of the ‘manning’ of the Dutch International Coordination Centre, also operated in accordance with the provisions of the Technical Arrangement of ATARES (Air Transport, Air Refuelling and other Exchanged Services), a programme also signed by Italy, one of the first nine nations to recognise its uniqueness and distinctive nature. Since the Centre’s creation (in 2002, as the European Airlift Coordination Centre – EACC) to the present day, other nations have joined the aforementioned programme, bringing the total to 21 (including the USA and Canada – Portugal and Austria are due to join on 1 January 2010) or have expressed a clear intention to join (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and New Zealand) with a view to making their assets available to help contain the costs arising from meeting the requirements of Air Transport (AT), In-Land Surface Transport (IST) or Sea Transport (ST) independently. Through the ATARES programme, these costs are not monetised but are determined on the basis of a commonly accepted benchmark (the Equivalent Flying Hour – EFH, i.e. the cost of a single flight hour of a C-130 aircraft or an equivalent carrier) to determine the debt (or credit) in EFH arising from the activity utilised (or provided) through the Centre’s coordination. In addition to the aforementioned activities, the current organisational structure of the MCCE includes a unit dedicated to supporting Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR) operations, in which the tanker assets made available by the nations are often regarded as a “strategic” resource, not coincidentally defined as genuine ‘Force Multipliers’. In addition to the detailed coordination and management of these assets, there are also activities relating to receiver aircraft: the final tasking, however, remains the responsibility of the relevant agencies, as the final validation of the activity in accordance with the terms proposed by the AAR unit and in accordance with ATARES, to meet the requirements initially set out by the nations for training support (for achieving or maintaining operational readiness) or for a Long Range Deployment (participation in international exercises or the deployment of assets to ATAOO). Some of the main activities – of specific interest to the Italian Air Force – carried out during the three-year period 2006–2009 within the AAR cell include: preparatory training and detailed planning for the “Storm Shadow Campaign” (tanker support from the United Kingdom and France); the consolidation of existing international agreements regarding the use of national airspace for the conduct of AAR operations by Allied forces, as well as a tangible contribution in terms of ‘flight safety’ within the context of coordinated activities;the ongoing calculation of costs, in terms of EFH debits and credits, for the support received (and/or provided) in the aforementioned activities or in the testing of new systems (helicopters, C-160 and KC-130J) or, albeit with a reduced EFH impact, within the AT framework; the preparatory training and subsequent support (FrAF and USAF tankers) required for the deployment of national assets in international exercises and ATAOO operations;the definition of procedures, by way of derogation from the regulations laid down by the French Ministry of Defence, for the granting of clearance to AM-X ACOL personnel to operate on KC-135 FR aircraft (suspended since November 2006), with qualifications and currency requirements aimed at their subsequent redeployment to the USA;the proposal (with the consequent drafting of a reference document) for the conduct of AAR operations in accordance with the new ‘En Route’ concept, developed on the basis of the findings from the previous ‘Storm Shadow Campaign’ experience. This concept is based on the deployment of tankers in accordance with a so-called ‘Tanker-Programme Planning’ (Tanker-ProPlan, notified at regular intervals), optimising their use in an increasingly congested airspace – such as that of Europe – thereby overcoming the various limitations arising from the use of the more than 70 AAR areas currently in existence (SESAR & Conceptual Study AAR Cell).
