NAMEST, Czech Republic – The international live-fly and live-firing exercise Ample Strike ended last Friday providing critical advanced training for Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) teams from 18 Allied and Partner nations.

 

"The scenarios were more complex than in previous years, as we were able to build on both the experience and the skills of excellent trainers; 20 JTAC teams had to deal with multiple situations simultaneously often under time pressure,” said exercise director Colonel Zdeněk Bauer. "The professional contribution of Allied aircraft including bombers, fighters, support aircraft and helicopters from the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and the United States allowed thousands of truly multinational control runs for our JTACS," he added.

 

This year more than 900 Czech soldiers and almost 300 participants from Allies Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands,Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States as well as Partner Finland conducted challenging and realistic training scenarios at Military Training Areas of Boletice and Libavá and air bases at Namest, Časlav, Pardubice and Bechyně. Ample Strike has focused on offering advanced training to international JTACs, air crews and commanders of ground forces at tactical level.

 

Allied pilots in 39 aircraft and helicopters flew more than 600 hours providing close air support, air-to-air refueling and overflights demonstrating show-of-presence."It will be important in the future to assure support especially from our Allies providing flying platforms to allow the Czech Armed Forces to continue offering much needed quality training for this key skill required for Allied and Coalition air operations,” Colonel Bauer concluded.