Colonel Fernando Leitao

Colonel Fernando Leitão completed his pilot course in 1994. Assigned to Squadron 552 -o Air Force Base 11, in Beja, he qualified as Alouette Ill operational pilot, flight instructor. He was deployed twice to East-Timor and became Commander of 552 Squadron, between 2006 and 2008. In 2008 he was appointed Technical Director of a Military Technical Cooperation Project with Angola, in Lobito. Between 2010 and 2011, Col Leitão graduated from the Air Command and Staff Course and completed a Master Degree in Military Operational Art and Science, in the United States. This course was followed by a fiveyear period as faculty member and researcher at the Military University Institute, in Lisbon. In 2016 he started a three and a half year mission in Brussels, performing the duties of Military Advisor in the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the European Union, dealing with the different dimensions of the EU Common Security and Defence Policy. Colonel Fernando Leitão has flown more than 4,000 hours, fixed and rotary wing, and is the current Head of the Air Force's Staff Planning Division.