On the 11th September 2018, the Multinational Aviation Training Centre (MATC) was activated as a NATO Military Body (NMB) by the highest authority of NATO, North Atlantic Council (NAC). The activation process, which started in October 2017 by signing of the „Formal Request for the MATC Activation“, had been completed after HQ SACT and MC/IMS procedure termination.
Becoming an NMB, MATC is an international military organization with an international status granted in accordance with Article 14 of the Paris Protocol (Protocol on the status of International Military Headquarters set up pursuant to the North Atlantic Treaty). This status ensures legal personality, which includes the right to conclude contracts and to acquire and handle property related to the MATC operation and maintenance.
New technology has now arrived at HTP Ostrava! The dual full-crew simulator facility is the show piece of the company’s newly introduced tactical centre for helicopter crews. The helicopter tactical simulation platforms have been installed to cover the varied and diverse tactical training requirements of multinational helicopter forces.
“HTP Ostrava is now in an even better position to support helicopter units with a state-of-the-art simulator. This facility will enable units to fully prepare for deployments for current and future operations,” stated HTP manager for tactical training, Miloš Pecha.
He also added: “But the simulator itself would be nothing without the experienced instructors to train and mentor the crews – therefore, we offer the unique combination of a modern training facility together with Qualified Helicopter Tactics Instructors (QHTI) from the UK to provide training in accordance with current standards.” The QHTIs have a broad operational experience across many recent areas of operation. Standardization of tactics procedures across helicopter units is their key motto, as they recently came from delivering Helicopter Tactics Courses (HTC) and European Helicopter Tactics Instructor Courses (HTIC) run by the European Defence Agency (EDA). The recent affiliation with the EDA Helicopter training programme continues to encourage interoperability and standardizes the multinational training across Europe and beyond. Facilitating this under the umbrella of the Multinational Aviation Training Centre (MATC), a potential new NATO body in the near future, HTP Ostrava is ready to provide this training to NATO countries. HTP has already begun delivering training on the new simulator with pre-deployment training of the combined Czech, Hungarian and Croatian Air Advisory Team (AAT), running alongside the Operational English Language Course. Later in the year, the focus will be given to tactical refresher courses for the Czech Air Force crews, in order to keep their capabilities refreshed and standardized. In the very near future HTP expect more countries to join the tactical courses, or request bespoke courses which can be tailor-made in terms of length and scenario types depending on their operational deployments or training requirements.
The HTP tactical simulator allows realistic and immersive flying in both urban and rural environments in any weather, day/night and environmental (limited visibility dust/snow) conditions and is ideal for basic and advanced tactical training for full helicopter crews. Each aircraft has excellent graphics and a flight model complete with a cabin containing 2 door-gunner stations with machine guns utilizing virtual reality (VR) visual systems and weapon system ballistics which correspond to real characteristics. A wide range of threats can be simulated to push the crews to their limits. The tactical training will consist of three main parts: mission planning using adequate planning cells and tools, mission execution with actual missions flown in the simulator and finally, mission de-briefing using a dedicated communications playback capability.
The HTP Ostrava team is striving to further improve the capabilities of helicopter forces!
