National leaders set to discuss Euro-NATO pilot training

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Valerie Hosea
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) --  Officials from the 80th Flying Training Wing's Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program here will host the ENJJPT Steering Committee March 8 to12.  During this 59th meeting of the committee, program participants, including national leaders, plan to discuss issues and set policies.

As the commander of the 80th FTW, Col. Kevin Schneider has two chains of command. He reports to 19th Air Force for daily operations and administration, but he also works for the international partners through the steering committee process, he said.

"The steering committee gives the ENJJPT wing the operational and strategic level guidance for how we conduct our multinational mission," he said.

Colonel Schneider said typically the ENJJPT commander starts the meeting by giving a status brief addressing pilot productivity, significant events and the conduct of operations. The committee then breaks into two sub-committees: one that focuses on policy, and the other that deals with the financial aspects of the ENJJPT program.

The policy sub-committee is set to discuss syllabus changes, flying training events, manning contributions and student inputs from the partner nations, the colonel said. The financial sub-committee will discuss the costs of the ENJJPT program that are shared between the partner nations. Any time changes are made, costs are involved, he said. Also, individual nations cannot make decisions and execute them by themselves; all decisions must be agreed on by the partners.

The ENJJPT program is unique because it is a multinationally manned and managed pilot training operation. Established by a Memorandum of Understanding between 13 NATO nations in 1978, the first ENJJPT students arrived at Sheppard AFB in 1981. Over the course of its nearly 30-year history, the ENJJPT program has graduated 6,016 pilots for the NATO Alliance. In addition, the program has produced 1,951 graduates from the Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals course.

The committee meets twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, with at least one of the meetings taking place at Sheppard and the other in Europe. The fall meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place in Germany.