Ghana wants joint-country military exercises
Air Vice Marshall Michel Samson-Oje, Chief of Air Staff, Ghana, has observed that joint military exercises of armies of different countries, afforded the personnel opportunity to learn from each other.
“Learning from each other could save you from years of trial and error, which often leads to many avoidable mistakes,” he said.
Air Vice Marshall Samson-Oje, made the observation when Service Chiefs of countries, participating in a two-week flight training programme in Accra, visited and interacted with the training participants.
He said apart from the participants learning new things, such joint exercises made it possible for armies to collaborate, whenever that became necessary.
Touching on a demonstration by the airmen on some of the things they had learnt during the training, Air Vice Marshall Samson-Oje commended the US Air Force, coordinators of the programme.
“Today, we see loading of passengers, cargo and some aspects of airfield security. We’ve learnt new ways of doing things which would help improve upon the skills of the Ghana Air Force,” he said.
Colonel David Poage, Commander of African Partnership Flight Mission, said this was the first time several African countries had been brought together to train, adding that the training used to involve just one country at a time.
“We want to build relations, as well as exchange technical knowledge,” he said.
Col. Poage said the training exercise had been successful, and there had been no hitches at all.
The training programme was participated by 140 airmen from six African countries and 40 airmen from the United States of America (USA).
It was coordinated and funded by the US Air Force, and had airmen from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Benin and Uganda as participants.
The military to military multilateral and regional event, is designed to foster greater regional cooperation between the African partner nations’ Air Forces, and increase air safety.
The training exercise ends on Friday, March 23.
Source: GNA