Croatian-Czech Air Advisory Team training at the military training facility “Crvena zemlja”

First live fire exercise of the 1st Course of the Joint Czech-Croatian Air Advisory Team Pre-deployment Training was successfully conducted today, May 9, at the helicopter shooting ground on “Crvena zemlja” military training facility near Knin.

Shooting is an integral part of the training course of Croatian and Czech instructors, and the goal is to achieve a higher level of coordination of helicopter crews in situations of joint actions of pilots, technicians and gunners. Shooting was conducted by members of the Czech Armed Forces from machine gun M-84 (PKM) from Mi-171 Sh helicopter on ground targets.

This is a joint training of Croatian and Czech helicopter crews and aircraft maintenance technicians as part of the pre-deployment training and preparation of members who will be sent to the ISAF operation in Afghanistan as 5th AAT – Air Advisory Team. Flight training is conducted on the Mi-171 Sh, and it was preceded by one-week training of flight crews on simulators in Ostrava in the Czech Republic. The training includes theoretical and general preparation, functional part for flight and ground crews, finalizing it with practical flight training. The course was jointly designed by Croatian and Czech teams with advisory support of the institutions and units of the United States.

Commander of the Course is Croatian pilot Colonel Michael Križanec. The training will be followed by evaluation of mission readiness of forces at the national level, and the rotation of forces. AAT basic task is the training of Afghan helicopter squadron of the Afghan Air Force by the NATO standards and procedures at Kabul KAIA airport. This joint training is conducted in the framework of the NATO “Smart Defence” initiative.

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