The European Defence Agency’s (EDA) Helicopter Training Centre at Sintra Airbase in Portugal has officially inaugurated Inzpire’s Mission Training Device providing a new targeted fidelity simulator to enable helicopter crews to train together in a simulated training environment.

According to an Inzpire release on June 16, the inauguration took place on May 26 during a joint visit to the base by Portuguese Defence Minister João Gomes Cravinho, EDA chief executive Jiří Šedivý, EU Military Committee chairman Gen Claudio Graziano, as well as representatives from EU member states.

Inzpire instructors will use the simulator to deliver the EDA’s Helicopter Tactics and Helicopter Tactics Instructor courses, the latter of which is a seven-week course consisting of four weeks ground school in Sintra followed by three weeks live flying in Hungary.

In addition, Inzpire will continue to deliver EDA classroom-based Electronic Warfare and support the Composite Air Operations training from the Portuguese airbase.

The simulator was utilised for its first full training course in mid-May during the EDA’s Helicopter Tactics Course held in Sintra. In total, two crews from Portugal and two from Germany participated in the course, where the tactical challenges students are likely to face during rotary operations were introduced.