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Czech holds NATO Ample Strike 2016 air exercise

Xinhua, September 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

The three-week international military exercise Ample Strike 2016 to coordinate aircraft crews and forward air controllers in support of ground operations, ended Tuesday in the Czech Republic.

With 16 NATO member countries and partner armies taking part, the exercise also aimed at testing the capability of providing logistical support for foreign troops. Over 100 Czech soldiers and nearly 300 foreign soldiers participated in the exercise, the biggest international military training to be held in the country so far this year.

Tomas Maruscak, spokesman of the exercise, said pilots of 34 planes and helicopters achieved 747 flight hours altogether and they carried out 1,520 simulated manoeuvres over enemy forces in cooperation with the forward air controllers. Twenty-seven forward air controller teams participated in the exercise.

Aircraft took off from five places in the Czech Republic, and also from Kecskemet in Hungary, Neuburg in Germany, and the Fairford base in Britain. A total of 330 soldiers from Czech reserve troops participated in the exercise of air forward controllers, the first time they have taken part in the exercise.

Ample Strike 2016 follows on the tradition of the international exercises Flying Rhino, Ramstein Rover and Ample Strike, which were organized in Namest nad Oslavou in Czech Republic from 2003 to 2015.

The main part of the exercise will remain the same in 2017. Exercise director Colonel Zdenek Bauer said the organisers were ready to react to the latest demands and adapt the exercise scenario in order to correspond with the needs of the individual armies. Endit