11-Oct-2012 Source: European Defence Agency
With the redeployment of the last helicopters and ground forces, Green Blade 2012 ends last Friday. Three weeks, 49 missions and 487 flying hours later, the 550 participants from four countries part from the Belgian Air Base Kleine-Brogel better trained and better prepared for multinational missions.
“Green Blade 2012 was a great success. All participants have made tremendous efforts and have delivered hard work with passion. All have reached an extraordinary level of interoperability and gained new grounds of mission preparation by sharing experiences and mutual trust and friendship.” Said Michael Becker, responsible for Green Blade 2012 at the EDA. Andy Gray, in charge of EDA’s helicopter training programme added, “We have to train personnel the way we fight. Collaboration is the only option and Green Blade was an excellent example of how far we get by working and training together.”
Throughout the exercise, the high level of interoperability was projected into various mission scenarios. Moreover, in between their challenging mission executions, the participating crews managed to organize an expert workshop aimed at the exchange of experience and lessons learned from their real Afghanistan or Iraq mission deployments.
Led by Italian instructor pilots, the workshop was introduced with the presentation “ISAF mission in Afghanistan”, providing the valuable lessons learned and original footage from the Italian helicopter deployment. The briefing was followed by an open and lively discussion, in which the particpating pilots of different participating Member States and even observers from Canada shared their crucial experiences from their missions abroad.
This kind of experience exchange between real experts perfectly fits into the concept of the Helicopter Exercise Programme. Similar workshops at even wider range of participants will represent a great value for the programme and show a valuable keypiont for the further strengthening of interoperability within our Member States.
A set of videos is available on YouTube.
