Europe's long-held aspiration to establish a collaborative military pilot training system could be within months of collapse, with the nine partner nations still yet to allocate funds to the initiative.
Conceived in 1997, the Advanced European Jet Pilot Training scheme had worthy objectives: to instruct around 300 students from 12 nations each year using a pooled fleet of advanced jet trainers and simulators.
But more than a decade on, the remaining participants have yet to agree on an aircraft type, training base locations, support mechanism or management structure for the planned multinational system.
Its projected annual intake has almost halved during this time, while the scheme's operational start date has drifted steadily from an original target of this year to around 2017 and full capability in 2020 - probably.
Some industry sources now view the AEJPT/Eurotraining process as a glorified business creation scheme for Alenia Aermacchi's favoured M-346. A programme split is inevitable, they claim, due to severe budget constraints and disparate national requirements. Greece needs new trainers now, but cannot afford to buy them, but Finland's upgraded BAE Systems Hawks could fly on until 2030.
Given the Eurotraining players' consistent lack of urgency in fielding a next-generation system, there seems little chance of bringing this scheme to market.
Source: Flight International
