LTC Xavier BRUNETTE is the helicopter X-teams commander in the French Army Aviation Test Center. After completing the helicopter basic training in Germany, he spent 11 years as an operational combat helicopter pilot on the anti-tank, air support and air-to-air interdiction GAZELLE. He was deployed in the Balkans and in Africa for peace keeping and peace settlement operations. Graduated from class 136 of the United States Naval Test Pilot School in 2009, he is also an experimental test pilot EASA-rated. He spent his test pilot career on the TIGRE program, as systems officer, armament specialist and head of the TGER test team. He helped the French Army Aviation to deploy the HELLFIRE missile, he is also a rockets and gun expert on the TIGER. Xavier flew more than 3,000 flight hours on 29 different types of aircraft, including fixed-wing “paralyzed” (seaplane, glider, four-engine plane) planes