A joint visit to the 120th Air Training Wing in Kalamata will be carried out on October 21 by the Defense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos and the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Benjamin Gantz, “in order to supervise the progress of the projects” at the International Flight Training Center, as stated in the relevant invitation of the Ministry of the Interior to the accredited journalists.
Therefore, it is not about the opening ceremony of the Center, as has been reported in the various media, but rather about the inauguration of the new buildings that have been erected for the needs of the project.
Infrastructure projects are currently underway under the relevant contract awarded to the Israeli Elbit Systems on April 16, 2021. The contract provides for the installation of two new M346 aircraft flight simulators, one T-6 aircraft flight simulator, 25 computers of the integrated training system ground (Ground Based Training System) and the Command & Control Center, with related infrastructures. The main means of carrying out the flying project are 10 M346 advanced training jet aircraft.
The 10 M346 aircraft, ground training systems and spare parts inventory will remain the property of Elbit, which is leasing them to the Air Force for a period of 20 years.
As the contract provides for the start of flight hours on the M346 aircraft, two years after its signature, this means that the M346s will be in Kalamata in the spring of 2023 and in April they will start operating.
