After a few years of closely monitoring this military exercise, currently staged at least three – four times per year at Albacete in Spain, I finally decided to attend this exercise in October 2014. I decided to attend this particular exercise also owing to the fact that the Spanish Air Force was simultaneously organising an airshow to celebrate its 75th anniversary during that same week, thus I managed to catch two birds with one stone.
The Tactical Leadership Program is a unique, stand alone organization based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Air Forces of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and United States of America. Based on their contributions towards the TLP these Nations are entitled to send a number of students and participants to the respective course and have the right to influence the TLP’s activities. Other Nations such as Switzerland, Turkey or Poland have also been invited as guests to the TLP courses.
The TLP COMAO Flying Course aims to improve the tactical leadership skills and flying capabilities of front line fighter mission commanders, to improve the tactical interoperability of NATO Air Forces through exposure to tactics and capabilities of other air forces and to provide a flying laboratory for tactical employment concepts.
The course also enables a free exchange of information on weapons, tactics and capabilities between the participating nations. By providing an environment that encourages the discussion and development of multi-national tactics, participants find the best way to employ the differing aircraft capabilities of the multi-national forces in Composite Air Operations (COMAO).
For this particular exercise, the countries that participated included the following:
- France (Mirage 2000N + CN-235 + TBM-700A);
- Italy (Eurofighter EF2000 + AMX + C-130J + KC-767A);
- Czech Republic (L-159A + C-295M);
- Spain (F/A-18A + EF/18M + EF2000 + C101AB + AS332B + SH-3H +K/C-130H +CN235 + C295M + Ce550/650);
- Greece (Mirage 2000EG + C-130H);
- Denmark (F-16AM + C-130J-30);
- Germany (EF2000 + Tornado ECR + C-160D + A310MRTT);
- NATO (E-3A);
- Switzerland (F/A-18C/D);
- Turkey (F-16C/D + A400M + KC-135R + C-130H + C-160D) &
- United Kingdom (Hawk T1A + BAe 125 CC3).
Needless to say, I was very excited to see most of the aircraft, in particular the Greek Mirages and the Italian AMXs. I spent two days at Albacete, where I witnessed the afternoon waves in great weather conditions. Despite not being a very large exercise in terms of aircraft participation, the access for photos is great and it attracts several aircraft types not seen very often.
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