On Thursday (2 December 2021), the 10 Allies participating in the NATO Flight Training Europe (NFTE) High Visibility Project – Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Spain, and Turkey – officially designated the initial two NFTE Training Campuses.
They reached this milestone only six months after their Defence Ministers formally established NFTE in the run up to the NATO Summit.
The two NFTE Training Campuses selected are the Flight Training Center (CLV) in Pardubice, Czech Republic, and the International Flight Training School (IFTS) to be located in Decimomannu, Italy. Both locations will deliver cutting-edge training opportunities for aspiring jet fighter pilots of the participating Allies. The first NFTE students are expected to start their training at the campuses as early as 2023.
This marks a critical initial milestone in NFTE’s ambition to fundamentally reshape the air crew training landscape in Europe toward less fragmentation, lower training costs and increased interoperability. For this purpose, participants will incrementally establish a network of NFTE Training Campuses that will eventually address the entire spectrum of participants’ air crew training requirements, including fast jet, fixed-wing, helicopter, and drone pilots. Today’s selection of the initial two NFTE Training Campuses is therefore just the first step in a highly ambitious multinational cooperation journey.
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