European Defence Agency’s C-27J Spartan Exercise focuses on tactical air transport and Medevac.

The seventh edition of the 'European Spartan Exercise,' a dedicated training program for the C-27J Spartan military transport aircraft, commenced today, embarking on two weeks of intensive joint training. This exercise is being held at the 90th airlift base in Otopeni, Romania, and features participation from four nations: Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, and Lithuania. This time, the European Spartan Exercise will focus on Tactical air transport, including air Medevac operations.

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C-27J Spartan in special operations configuration displayed at the World Defense Show 2022 near Riyadh  (Picture source: Army Recognition)

This event brings together three C-27J aircraft and approximately 150 personnel. It is scheduled to run from October 2nd to October 12th, marking Romania's second hosting of the exercise. The core planning team, comprising personnel from the participating nations and the European Defence Agency (EDA), commenced preparations on September 27th. Each planning cell includes a representative from the participating nations, and medical personnel are tasked with planning dedicated missions for medical evacuation.

Tactical training is at the heart of the C-27J Spartan transport aircraft's capabilities, making it ideal for peacekeeping and humanitarian operations. It provides direct air transport to various theaters, operating day and night. The Spartan Exercise aligns with this focus, training C-27J crews in low-level tactical navigation across different scenarios. The second week of the exercise will be dedicated to Tactical Medevac activities. Several airfields in Romania have been selected for training purposes, where crews will perform tactical approaches, conduct material (CDS) and personnel airdrops, and utilize unprepared runways and short airfields for take-off and landing.

The European C-27J community, represented in this annual flying exercise, is part of the EDA's dedicated C-27J project. This project brings together five participating Member States that use the C-27J aircraft (the aforementioned four countries plus Slovakia). Its primary goal is to identify and develop common projects in various domains, including operations, training, logistics, procurement, airworthiness, and research in Single European Sky Air Traffic Management (SESAR). These efforts aim to achieve a high level of interoperability and establish cost-efficient operating and maintenance models.