ENJJPT to host Steering Committee

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Valerie Hosea
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  The Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT) Program is hosting the ENJJPT Steering Committee at the 80th Flying Training Wing March 8-12. This is the 59th meeting of the Steering Committee and leaders from nations participating in the program will be in attendance.

The Steering Committee is the forum where all program participants discuss issues and set policies for the ENJJPT Program.

"As the commander of the 80th Flying Training Wing, I have two chains of command," said Col. Kevin Schneider, 80th Flying Training Wing commander. "I report to the 19th Air Force for daily operations and administration, but I also work for the international partners through the Steering Committee process."

"The Steering Committee gives the ENJJPT Wing the operational and strategic level guidance for how we conduct our multi-national mission," he said.

Colonel Schneider said typically the ENJJPT commander will start the meeting by giving a status brief addressing pilot productivity, significant events and the conduct of operations. The committee will then break into two sub-committees: one that focuses on policy and the other that deals with the financial aspects of the ENJPPT program.

"The policy sub-committee will discuss syllabus changes, flying training events, manning contributions and student inputs from the partner nations."

"The financial sub-committee deals with the costs of the ENJJPT program that are shared between the partner nations. Any time changes are made, costs are involved," Colonel Schneider said.

He also said individual nations cannot just make a decision and execute it by themselves; all decisions have to be agreed on by the partners.

The ENJJPT program is unique because it is a multi-nationally manned and managed pilot training operation. Established by a Memorandum of Understanding between 13 NATO nations in 1978, the first ENJJPT students arrived at Sheppard AFB in 1981. Over the course of it nearly 30-year history, ENJJPT has graduated 6,016 pilots for the NATO Alliance. In addition, the program has produced 1,951 graduates from the Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals course.

The committee meets twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, with at least one of the meetings taking place at Sheppard and the other in Europe. The next meet is tentatively scheduled to occur in Germany during the fall season.