Sheppard Air Force Base hosts the world’s only internationally manned and managed pilot training program: the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program (ENJJPT) in which 14 NATO countries participate. To train pilots, there are six flying training squadrons based at Sheppard that are equipped with the T-6A Texan II to tech basic flying skills and the T-38C Talon to train jet figther pilots.

Training
ENJJPT provides Undergraduate Pilot Training and Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals, but also provides for its own Pilot Instructor Training and IFF Upgrade Instructor Pilot training. The instructor training is a program that teaches pilots to be instructor pilots. About 200 student pilots earn their wings at Sheppard annually after a 55-week, three-phased training. About 80 new instructor pilots are trained annually and up to 150 pilots transition through IFF each year. In 2017, Sheppard AFB was the busiest joint-use air field (civil and military) in the U.S. Air Force.

82nd Training Group
Besides ENJJPT, Sheppards is also home of the 82nd Training Group, which is responsible for aircraft maintenance, munitions and military training of the United States Air Force. It is a major military training school, with annualy over 19,300 graduates. The unit has several military ‘ground’ aircraft in use for these courses.

We published an article about the training of the Dutch Air Force pilots at Sheppard AFB in the September 2017 issue of Piloot en Vliegtuig.