MATC experts meeting at Zemunik

The experts attended meetings held in the 93rd Croatian Air Force Base stationed in the Barracks “Pukovnik Mirko Vukušić“ at Zemunik from 10-12 September 2019, organised by the Service for Military Air and Maritime Traffic of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Croatia.

The attendees are the representatives of the national aviation authorities of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia – the members of the inational Aviation Training Center (MATC), headquartered in Vyškov, the Czech Republic.

The objective of the Seminar was to mutually recognise military aircraft airworthiness (Mutual Bilateral Airworthiness Recognition – MBAR) and to discuss standardization of key missions assigned to the national military air and maritime traffic authorities, including training, aircraft maintenance and flying considerations, to ensure the standardisation in all MATC member countries.

The Croatian representatives contributed to the setting of standard criteria for the four MATC members by presenting the completed aviation recognition questionnaires.

The participants also visited the firefighter air forces, and were briefed on the activities and equippedness of the Firefighter Squadron.

The Head of the Service for Military Air and Maritime Traffic Colonel Saša Crnec said that the meetings were held regularly and presented news in the respective legal regulations concerning military air traffic in MATC member countries.“ The co-operation among MATC members is focussed on military air traffic, and we discussed all options to further upgrade the sector. It is important that the certificates for pilots from one country trained in other country are standardised and recognised in all MATC members“, said Colonel Crnčec.

The initiative to set up an International Aviation Training Center came in 2011, aimed at standardising aviation training, increased interoperability and cost saving through upgraded efficiency of training activities through multinational co-operation within NATO’s Smart Defence Initiative. June 2015 saw the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of the Centre by the member countries -the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia.

One of the activities of the MATC in the 93rd Croatian Air Base was the training of two Czech pilots in the Helicopter Squadron (BELL-206B helicopters) conducted in 2017.

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