Students graduate from Multinational Special Aviation Programme Training Centre in Croatia
On Friday 30 October 2020 the first group of students from the NATO Multinational Special Aviation Training Programme hosted by Croatia received their graduation after successfully completing a first training module. Nineteen students completed the Special Operations Air Planning Course conducted at the Multinational Special Operations Programme campus in Zadar, Croatia.
In December 2019 the Defence Ministers from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovenia officially opened the Multinational Special Operations Programme as part of NATO’s multinational High Visibility Projects. The Multinational Special Operations Programme aims to train multi-purpose helicopter crews that support special land and maritime operations.
In February 2020 the Multinational Special Operations Programme held a successful “train the trainers” course hosted by the United States and Poland, leading to the graduation of eight instructors.
The 19 students and 8 instructors from all four participating allied countries were supported by mentors from the United States 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The Special Operations Air Planning course enables students to obtain proficiency in all phases of the planning process for conducting special operations air missions.
In the coming months the Multinational Special Operations Programme will extend the range of its courses with flight training modules expected to start in 2021.