Defence IQ confirms representatives from the German Army, US Air Force and UK Royal Navy as speakers at the International Military Helicopter conference, taking place 11th-13th May 2011 at the Olympia Conference Centre, London.

Dedicated to the military helicopter community, this conference is scheduled to address the current capabilities and future requirements of participating nations, at a time when many members of the rotary wing industry remain cautiously optimistic about the sector’s prospects:

“The total requirement for helicopters hasn’t been reduced as drastically as, for example, the fixed wing or the multi-engine side. So in that respect the rotary pipeline has still got quite a significant future,” Commander Michael Greenland, Chief Instructor of the Defence Helicopter Flying School told Defence IQ recently.

However, at a time of increased budgetary restrictions, international militaries are looking at the lessons learned and best-practice techniques from recent operations in order to ensure the cost-effectiveness of current platforms, and avoid further scaling back of operations and reductions in personnel numbers – particularly following the highly-publicised sacking last week of up to one hundred RAF trainee pilots as part of cost-saving measures.

International Military Helicopter 2011 will offer expert insight and analysis from an international speaker faculty including:

• Colonel Hans Werner Salewski, Commander, 15 Medium Transport Helicopter Regiment, German Army, who will discuss the German Armed Force’s rotary wing strategy for battlefield support operations
• Colonel Sam Michaud, Commander, 12 Wing Shearwater, Canadian Forces, speaking on the Canadian Armed Forces’ maritime helicopter commitments
• Commander Jol Woodard, Officer Commanding, 845 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, talking about the operation of a multirole helicopter system in support of joint operations

Defence IQ is offering all serving Flag Officers 1* and above a free pass to attend the conference. Passes can be requested from Calum Jeffray at calum.jeffray@iqpc.co.uk

Additional information is available at http://www.MilitaryHelicopterEvent.com, along with complimentary articles, podcasts and videos in the Download Centre ( http://www.militaryhelicopterevent.com/Event.aspx?id=421428). The Defence IQ – Military Community (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=1878638 ) LinkedIn group is open for membership, and related content can be found athttp://www.defenceiq.com.