Engagement capacity of the Belgian Army’s Air Component

In its report to the Federal Parliament, the Court of Audit examines to which extent the Belgian Army’s Air Component achieves its objectives or “ambition level”, i.e. readiness (through training of pilots and maintenance of material) and the deployment of capabilities in military operations. Despite the unfavourable evolution of the global security environment, the ambitions for the Air Component have been repeatedly scaled down in recent years so as to better adjust to the real available resources. With regard to readiness and the average number of flight hours per aircraft in particular, the air component performs very well. The available flying hours are also used efficiently. Moreover, the air component has so far always responded positively to any request for deploying its capabilities in foreign operations. However, the ongoing commitments in recent years have had a negative impact on the pilots’ global training level, the availability of aging aircraft and the surge capacity of new aircraft.