AIR International – June 2018

MILITARY NATO TACTICAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME AT 40

60 | http://www.airinternational.com

L

os Llanos Air Base is located to the

south of the city of Albacete; the

largest city in the Castilla La Mancha

region of central Spain. Home to

the Ejército del Aire’s Eurofi ghter-

equipped Ala 14 (14th Wing), Los Llanos

Air Base is also home of NATO’s Tactical

Leadership Programme and its busy fl ying

courses each involving aircraft and helicopters

from around Europe. AIR International begins

its story with an explanation of how the

annual series of TLP courses are devised.

Organising a course

After being notifi ed by each of the

programme’s participant nations’ training

requirements at the end of 2017, the TLP sta

developed the calendar for 2018. This year

will see a rise in the academic courses to 12:

four composite air operations (COMAO), two

electronic warfare (EW), two intelligence, two

support and two combat search and rescue

(CSAR). The number of fl ying courses will

remain at the four that are planned annually.

The fi rst academic course of the year was an

eight-day class devoted to the planning and

execution of COMAO missions. Once this

course was over, intense preparations began

to welcome personnel and material for the

fi rst fl ying course of 2018. This complicated

logistics operation is the responsibility of the

small Spanish contingent of the TLP Support

branch. Once again, it has been responsible

for coordinating the needs of each participant

country with regards to the reception of

equipment and personnel and working with

the di erent Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air

Force) units that support the staged arrival

of units. The week before the course begins,

ground convoys and transport aircraft arrive

at Albacete with support equipment for air

operations, along with the majority of the 638

military personnel involved.

The fi rst two days of the course were

devoted as usual to academic activities, in

which the pilots received all the necessary

information to operate safely in the training

airspace. At the same time, there were several

meetings in which the participants worked out

the various common tactics and methods to

be used to undertake the planned missions.

Flying course 2018-01

The nations acting as Blue Air during

fl ying course FC 2018-01 had a total of 22

aircraft at their disposal, while Opposing

Forces (OPFOR, or Red Air) was made

up of eight aircraft. The course was also

supported by a complex EW and anti-aircraft

artillery simulation system provided by the

Roberto Yáñez and Alex Rodríguez report on NATO’s prestigious Tactical

Leadership Programme, which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary

Training over La Mancha

During the fi rst course of this year, Spanish Eurofi ghters

participated as members of the opposing force.

All images by Roberto Yáñez