Terminal Attack Control Exercise

The training objective was to achieve that the 12 officers drawn from the infantry battalions of the brigade have an adequate background knowledge on CAS by the end of the sessions. That is, to make sure that they know the task scheme of the HDF Air Force and the work of joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs) as well as the use of emergency close air support (ECAS). Thus they had to be introduced to the main missions of the HDF Air Force, the procedure of CAS requests, the English terminology, the main types of support aircraft currently in service and their armament.

The nominated personnel attended classroom instruction on the first two days in Debrecen. The trainers – First Lieutenants Gábor Herczeg, Richárd Aranyosi and Tibor Garamvölgyi from the HDF 86th Szolnok Helicopter Base Forward Air Controller (FAC) Team and Lt. Pál Máté Eff – introduced the training audience to the task system of the HDF Air Force, the air-ground operations aimed at destroying surface targets, the air command and control (C2) system, the fixed-wing support aircraft, the attack helicopters and the English-language radiotelephony procedures. On the third day the trainees had a map-reading and radio-aided practical session on the military training area of the ‘Vay Ádám’ Training Base in Hajdúhadház. Their training concluded with a practice involving Gripen fighters on the Egerbakta shooting range with the contribution of the HDF 59th ‘Szentgyörgyi Dezső’ Air Base.

In the trainers’ opinion, the training audience has acquired the fundamentals and the required skills during the training both in theoretical and practical respects. All the trainees had the right attitude to task execution, their language proficiency was satisfactory and the necessary training equipment was available too. During the three sorties they performed 17 terminal attack controls, all of which were assessed as successful.