The NATO Flight Training Europe (NFTE) initiative has gained four new participants, with Canada, Denmark, Norway and Poland having signed up during a NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels on 5 June.
Confirmation of the new entrants increases participation in the cooperative scheme to 17 nations.
“With membership in NFTE, Norway will be able to access student places in the other member states, and it opens up the possibility for us to train more pilots than we have the capacity for today,” says Norwegian defence minister Tore O Sandvik.
Established under the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), the NFTE programme previously had secured the membership of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Romania, Spain, Turkey and the UK.
As of earlier this year, the programme had approved the use of 14 training campuses across seven European NATO nations: the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Turkey and the UK. Those sites span the delivery of instruction for student pilots across a range of aircrew disciplines, with partners able to bid to use spare capacity.
Examples of the system at work include German students undergoing rotary-wing instruction at the Royal Air Force’s Shawbury base in the UK, and the ability for fast-jet trainees to use the International Flight Training School at Decimomannu air base in Sardinia, and the International Flight Training Centre in Kalamata, Greece.
The NFTE system achieved full operational capability in November 2024, following the completion of a Stage 1 activity which an NSPA source describes as providing a “common chassis”, including an online catalogue detailing training provision at individual sites and outlining course availability.
The multinational framework has been established as one of NATO’s High-Visibility Initiatives, to address a key shortfall in training availability.
