EATC opening at Eindhoven Airbase

On September 1st 2010, the Dutch minister of Defense officially opened the European Air Transport Command (EATC) at Eindhoven Airbase in the Netherlands. By setting up this command center, Belgium, Germany, France and The Netherlands are aiming at a more efficient use of their more than 200 cargo and tanker aircraft.

The new command has a headquarters which arranges all the aspects of a military aerial transport, like planning and execution of the missions, training and flight safety.

Different VIP's were flown into Eindhoven Airbase to attend the opening ceremony. Part of the celebration was a fly by over the brand new EATC building by different cargo aircraft of the participating countries. Big surprise was the flyby of the third Airbus 400M prototype, which marked the first visit of a "Grizzly" to the Netherlands. After the fly-by, paratroopers jumped out of a Dutch C-130 Hercules, carrying a EATC flag and the flags of the participating nations.

Currently, the EATC has four participating nations, but more countries have shown interest: Spain already has an observer within the EATC and Luxembourg has signed a letter of intent. Other countries, like the United Kingdom and Italy have shown serious interest and are following the developments closely.

© 2010 3Greens.nl