EDA’s 7th Helicopter Tactics Instructors Course (HTIC), which ran over seven weeks at Airbase No1 in Sintra (Portugal) and Pápa Air Base in Hungary, was successfully completed last week.
The course began on 30th of August with a four-week classroom phase, which included simulator training at Airbase No1 in Sintra, followed by a tree-week deployment to the Pápa Air Base in Hungary where participants engaged in live flying exercises. Supported by personnel from the Hungarian Defence Force and Pápa Air Base, the flying phase included a complex operational scenario employing dissimilar formation flying, evasion training against a range of airborne threats, Electronic Warfare (EW) against both ground-based and airborne systems and a variety of additional tasks such as Helicopter Assault, Convoy Escort and Mutual Support. The course was led by EDA’s HTIC chief instructor team and followed by Austrian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Portuguese and Swedish crews flying on six different types of helicopters: AW-109, EH-101, H145M, Mi-171, OH-58 and UH-60.
The staff instructors came from Austria, Germany and Sweden, together with some contracted support provided by Inzpire Ltd. Also, fixed wing support was provided by units of the Czech Alca Jets and the Hungarians Gripens, acting mainly as threats during the helicopter training. In addition, EW assets and personnel were provided by Austria and Hungary.
In total, 18 Bronze, 7 Silver and 3 Gold qualifications were awarded ensuring an important contribution to the international cadre of Helicopter Tactics Instructors (HTI).
Background
The Helicopter Tactics Instructors Course (HTIC) is an advanced helicopter training activity aimed at creating helicopter tactics instructors which are enable train nationally standardised tactics procedures to foster interoperability of the European helicopter units, their level of preparation, and to facilitate readiness for future deployments. This is done independently of the type of helicopter used. It is delivered since 2013. Since 2021, its location changed to Airbase No1 in Sintra (Portugal), where the ground and simulator of the course is executed, and to Pápa Air Base (Hungary), where the flying phase is delivered.
HTIC provides aircrew from participating nations with the skills and knowledge to teach advanced tactics to front-line aircrews from within their own national organisations and to assist in delivering the EDA’s Helicopter Exercise Programme (HEP), the Helicopter Tactics Course (HTC) and future HTIC. Successful graduates from the course are awarded a qualification recognised by other Member States. HTIC development courses run over two years: in the first year, prospective instructors refine their own knowledge of advanced helicopter tactics to the maximum degree. In the second year, the emphasis shifts to develop the participants’ ability to teach those tactics. In turn, Instructors who have demonstrated excellent abilities in delivering the course will be individually selected to come back a third time and teach alongside the existing instructional staff to finally achieve their Gold instructor qualification to become supervising instructors for future HTIC and/or components of the HTIC Chief Instructor Team.
The three main elements of HTIC include Evasion Training, Electronic Warfare and advanced Operations. They are initially taught as stand-alone skills before being brought together in a complex, non-permissive environment in the framework of the planning and execution of Composite Air Operations (COMAO).
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