Today's flight activity, so far conducted together with personnel from the Pratica di Mare Experimental Flight Department or Alenia Aermacchi testers, marks the aircraft's entry into the new and advanced training system. The two instructors, Lieutenant Colonel Simone O. and Captain Gregory D. welcomed the landing, all the staff of the department who wanted to celebrate the event by finding themselves right in front of the hangars that will house the future aircraft.
The T-346A, of Italian construction (Alenia Aermacchi), represents the flagship of operational training. Through it is implemented the introduction of the ITS (Integrated Training System) training system and at the same time radically transforms the training of military pilots destined to 4 ^ and 5 ^ generation aircraft. The entire training system, used in the phase IV process, thanks to the technological potential that characterizes it, will allow new "aerotactic" military pilots to train in complex scenarios (air-to-air, air-to-ground and electronic warfare) and to confront an aircraft with very high avionics and aerodynamic performance.
This training turning point represents for the armed force a qualitative leap that has no equal in other international training contexts and will allow an enormous reduction in the costs and financial resources necessary for the "combat readiness" of the fighter pilots. The next missions of the 61 pilots on the T-346A, will be directed to the training of the Stormo instructors, all of them coming from aerotactic lines, and to the development of the syllabus and training manuals that allow a concrete download of the activities of the operational departments of the armed force, raising the quality and the future "exit level" of the pilots in training.
Today the book of the history of the 61 ° Stormo turns the page and begins a new chapter: from the T6 "Texan", with which the young students were trained in the immediate "post-war", to the MB326, assigned to the flight school in the 1962, to the 'MB339 that in the Alpha version started its activity in Galatina in the 1982, and in that CD in the 1997, to arrive in the 2014 to the T-346A. The introduction of the new T-346A ITS training system and the professional technical background of the Stormo, makes the Galatina Flight School the center of excellence for basic, advanced and tactical military training in Europe and internationally.
Source: 61 ° Stormo - Lecce - Captain Angelo Guerrieri
