Page 81 - HeliOps Frontline Issue 26

HELIOPS FRONTLINE / ISSUE 26 / 2019 81

The Romanian
Navy operates
three IAR 330
Puma Navals for
maritime duties.
The 142 is seen
here during a low
flying exercise
near the home
base Tuzla Airfield.

common skills via the Air Force. After their initial training, they
started to train on the IAR 330 Puma Naval.’
In order to keep the small fleet up and running, the navy initially
received support from the Romanian Air Force’s technical service.
‘The first technical crews came from the Forțele Aeriene Române.
Once there was enough time to train our own naval crews, the Air
Force mechanics retired. Currently, we do have enough technical
crews within our own unit for the four specialities: armament,
electrical, mechanics and radio’, Mitric clarifies.
The colonel gained a lot of experience on the type through
the years. He continues: ‘I was assigned to the squadron back
in 2010. After three years, I went to Bucharest to work at the
Carol I National Defense University and in 2015, I returned to
the squadron.’ Prior to his placement at the maritime unit, the
commander had been working for the Forțele Aeriene Române
for ten years. He currently has more than 800 flight hours on the
Puma SOCAT and 1200 on the Puma Naval. The commander is also
a qualified as an instructor for day and night operations and NVG
flight ops. He is proud to look ahead into the future: ‘The squadron