Mai Efrat and Karen Tocatly | Photography: Carmel Horowitz
One-star General Constantinos Maniatis, Commander of the Aerial Army forces of Greece, landed in Israel as a guest of Major General Ido Nehushtan, Commander of the IAF.
General Maniatis, along with his entourage, began his visit in “Ramon” Airbase. Together with Brigadier General David Barky, Head of the IAF Helicopter Squadrons, the General visited the “Magic Touch” squadron. General Maniatis, a trained “Apache” pilot, took off on the helicopter. The smile on his face after landing was impossible to miss.
From there, the participants continued to “Palmachim” Airbase. They visited the training squadron at the Airbase, at which flight simulators for UAVs and helicopters are operated. After a short explanation about the training facilities and their abilities, General Maniatis was allowed the chance to test the “UH-60 Blackhawk” simulator up close.
At the end of a short practice flight, the visitors viewed a presentation by the “Northern Cobra” squadron, which operates “Cobra” helicopters. The Greek and Israeli air crew members discussed the training of pilots on fighter helicopters and continuous training following the “Pilot Training Course”.
“Cooperation with Greece has been very successful so far, so there is much justification in my eyes to continue the joint exercises”, said Brigadier General Barky to the IAF Website. “We very much want for this to continue, but we need to see that we can integrate these kinds of exercises in our busy schedule. Greece is a country that is important to us. It is close by, utilizes similar platforms to ours and so it is crucial to exchange theories, ideas and evolve together”, says Brigadier General Barky. “Because every country is in a different field and because we’re both developing into different directions, we still have much to converse about with the Greek”.
Source: iaf.org.il
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