Waist gunners complete training at Zemunik
The Mi-171 Sh Waist Gunner Training was completed at the 93rd Croatian Air Force and Air Defence Base at Zemunik on 25 April 2014 as the fourth training cycle, and the third autonomously organised and administered by the instructors of the 91st and 93rd Air Base.
The trainees were members of the Special Operations Battalion of the Croatian Arned Forces, who underwent the theory part, the hands-on practice aboard the helicopter and live firing from the PK machine gun at the Helicopter Range “Crvena zemlja” near Knin.
The training administrator, helicopter captain of the Multi-purpose Helicopter Squadron, Major Eduard Perković described waist gunners as “an additional pair of eyes and additional assurance for the flying crew”.
The waist gunner training makes part of the ISAF air mentoring team pre-deployment training, and is highly important in terms of upgraded co-ordinance, procedure harmonisation and team efficiency at an assigned task”, concluded Major Perković.
To remind, the Croatian instructors were certified for waist gunner training by the U.S. Minnesota National Guard instructors in September 2013, qualifying them to train and convey knowledge at the national and international level alike.