20 September 2010 - FSAF SAMP/T officially in service at the French Air Force
On 20 September 2010, with a ceremony chaired by the FR Air Force Command CoS (GCA Hugues HENDEL), the first SAMP/T section, baptized “MAMBA” by FR Air Force, was definitively put on duty. After completion of all the preparatory activities as personnel training, unit preparation/adaptation, initial in-servicing, the first SAMP/T section has been assigned to the air base 116 at Luxeuil-Saint Sauveur (East of France). This is the first of the 5 FR AF units planned to be equipped with the SAMP/T system. In the next future it is expected that the unit will participate to national and international exercises in order to be certificated “ready for operations”. The delivery of the first SAMP/T section to Italian Army is ongoing and the ATOC B1 (ATBM) campaign, which will culminate in a joint France/Italy ripple firing against a TBM target, is planned in 2012
