10,000 Flight Hours for Italian A129 in Afghanistan

Esercito Italiano, June 04, 2014 - The A129 Mangusta helicopters from the Italian Army Aviation have crossed the threshold of the 10,000 hours of flight in the skies of Afghanistan since the spring of 2007 when they were deployed to Herat as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The milestone was celebrated at military base Herat by the blue berets of Task Force "Fenice" (Phoenix) which is the rotary wing component of 7th Army Aviation Regiment "Vega" based in Rimini under the command of Colonel Joseph Pilot Power.

The Mangusta (Mongoose) is a scout and escort helicopter, very reliable and versatile, and equipped with the most advanced systems. Thanks to the professionalism and experience of their crew which they are often called to work in critical situations and bad weather conditions sometimes prohibitive, it proved to be an indispensable tool for the conduct of operations in support of coalition ground units and the Afghan security forces.

Their Intervention was characterized by a success rate of 100%, a particularly significant result that was reached thanks to the professionalism of the technical staff in charge of aircraft maintenance.