http://www.airinternational.com | 63Participants in FC2018-01
Blue air
Aeronavale
Two Rafale Ms
Aeronautica Militare
Two EF-2000 Eurofi ghters
Armée de l’Air
Four Mirage 2000Ds
Ejército del Aire
Four EF-18Ms
Elliniki Polemiki Aeroporia
Two F-16Cs
Luftwa e
Four Eurofi ghters
Royal Netherlands Air Force
Four F-16AMs
Red air
Aeronavale
Two Rafale Ms
Ejército del Aire
Two EF-18Ms
Two Eurofi ghters
Elliniki Polemiki Aeroporia
Two F-16Cs
Other participants
Ejército del Aire
One P-3M Grupo 22
One AS332B 803 Escuadrón
Aeronautica Militare
One AB212ICO 21° Gruppo
One HH-101A 81° CAE
One G550CAEW 71° Gruppo
Royal Air Force
One Sentry AEW1 8 SquadronAs for command and control systems, apart
from the participation from its home base
in the UK of a Royal Air Force Sentry AEW1
during the fi rst two weeks of the course,
of note was the participation during the
second half of the course of a Gulfstream
G550 CAEW belonging to the Aeronautica
Militare (Italian Air Force). This was the type’s
fi rst participation in an exercise outside
Italy since it entered service. In addition to
these systems, there was also the traditional
participation of Spanish military air controllers
belonging to the Ejército del Aire’s Grupo
Central de Mando y Control (Command
and Control Central Group), which oversaw
controlling aircraft when there were no
airborne air control systems available.Forty years of continuous
adaptation
It was a traditional that during the fi rst course
of the year it was common to undertake
various night missions, but no longer. If
requested by the participating nations,
the TLP sta can still run largescale night
operations of COMAO size where pilots who
are already TLP graduates can practise the
same missions but at night. However, strict
safety measures needed to conduct night
operations make the missions less realistic
and take away from the learning objectives.
This has led to the participating nations
stopping requesting night courses, since
they stray from the principal TLP mission of
creating create mission commanders.TOP RIGHT: The current TLP Commander, Colonel Luis Villar, has served as a pilot in various Spanish
fi ghter units. In 1994, while assigned to Ala 12, he participated in a TLP course at Florennes, Belgium.
He later undertook numerous missions as a mission commander during the confl ict in the Balkans.
BELOW: France is one of the programme’s member nations, with the largest number of participants
in the TLP courses. Slot allocation is coordinated during the annual Scheduling Conference for the
following calendar year.
NATO TACTICAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME AT 40 MILITARY