The Guacimeta military airfield is from this weekend the epicenter of the first maneuvers of 2021 of the European Tactical Transport Center, which should serve to train possible emergency situations. A total of 120 soldiers from Spain, Germany, Denmark and Italy are expected to take part in these exercises until March 26th, aboard four aircraft equipped to transport material and move people in humanitarian support activities.
As reported in the presentation made this Friday by Colonels Nicolás Ramírez Arregui (head of the base) and Fernando Raimundo Martínez (head of the ETAC, based in Zaragoza), the presence of 27 German military personnel is expected, aboard a A-400-M; 26 Italians, aboard a C-130-J; 11 Danes, with a plane identical to the transalpine one; and 20 Spaniards, crew members of a C-295. The first aircraft arrived on the island late in the afternoon yesterday, with the three remaining aircraft scheduled to land today.
The aforementioned personnel will have support on the ground from another 36 soldiers, 19 of them from the Air Force and the remaining 17 from the rest of the countries involved in the maneuvers, thus adding the 120 protagonists of the initiative. It will consist of seven differentiated exercises, with departure and arrival from Guacimeta, with a presence at facilities in Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro and Gran Canaria. In principle, the airport facilities in Tenerife and La Palma have been ruled out.
In the event that the activities of the ETAC, where 13 countries of the old continent take part and with NATO on the sidelines, are of benefit, the participants will receive the appropriate accreditation.
All practices will be carried out at night, but never into the early hours of the morning, these maneuvers taking place, consequently, to the daily operations of the Lanzarote César Manrique airport, which allows air operations until one hour after midnight. And all actions are planned to avoid any type of interference with daily air operations in the Canary Islands (as do the exercise between Morocco and the United States). “Civil activity will not be affected,” explained the head of the ETAC to the question made by CANARIAS7 during the presentation ceremony.
