Czech pilots to train in French mountains ahead of Afghan missionPrague- The Czech military transport helicopter pilots who are to operate within the Afghan mission next year, will undergo mountain training in the French Pyrenees this September, Jana Ruzickova from the Czech military staff has told CTK.
The five Mi-171 helicopters to operate in the mission are now being upgraded in the LOM air repair company in Prague.
In recent days speculations emerged that the pilots do not feel well prepared for the mission and that they do not feel like going to Afghanistan also due to allegedly insufficiently upgraded helicopters.
The Czech military plans to join the mission in the second half of 2009, if it is approved by the government and parliament.
The helicopters should be upgraded by the end of this year. Afterwards, the soldiers will have a few months to test them and undergo further training.
"The machines we're modernising will be equipped appropriately," LOM director Jindrich Ploch told CTK.
The hulls of the helicopters that the Czech Republic recently acquired within the repayment of the Russian debt to Prague, will be armoured and protected by bulletproof carpets.
"This is traditional equipment. It is also important that electronic protection, the active detection of hostile missiles and the possibility to launch false targets have been added," Ploch said.
The Mountain Fly exercise, scheduled for September 1-12, will be attended by 70 Czechs, including eight crews that are to operate within the first and the second rotation of the helicopter mission in Afghanistan, said Ruzickova.
Czech deputy chief-of-staff Josef Proks said the conditions in the Pyrenees, at the basic altitude of 2,000 metres, are similar to Afghanistan.
Czech soldiers are also to undergo another training in "a desert and dusty conditions," Proks said, adding that the place of the training is yet to be chosen.
Author: ČTK
Source
http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=326972
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