More than 30 NATO jets and helicopters conducting tactical flying operations in Spain

Europe, News February 7, 2024 , by IRIA No Comments

More than 30 fighter jets, drones, helicopters, transport planes, and refueling aircraft from NATO and partner Air Forces are conducting multinational tactical flying operations in Spain.

NATO Allies and partners are participating in the first multinational Flying Course, applying NATO tactics, techniques, and procedures at the Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) at Albacete Air Base in Spain.

During the course, about 650 participants, including 39 pilots, intelligence officers, and Ground-controlled interception (GCI) controllers, will conduct flying operations with 34 fighter jets simulating friendly and enemy air forces, according to the NATO Air Command (AIRCOM) statement.

Spanish Air Force F/A-18s, Hellenic Air Force F-16s, Czech Air Force JAS-39 Gripen, and France’s Rafale fighter jets participated in the flying course at the multinational TLP in Albacete Air Base.

According to the NATO AIRCOM statement, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland are providing fighter jets for the flying part of the drills, while NATO and French Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft will control the missions. The United States, Italy, and Spain are participating with helicopters and air extraction teams.

“Spanish MQ-9 Predator unpiloted systems, Italian personnel recovery experts, and joint terminal attack controllers from the United States and Spain, as well tactical transport aircraft and refueling aircraft enable a theatre-realistic training environment. The ground-based anti-aircraft threat is simulated by several systems of the Spanish Army and Navy and the PLYGONE tri-national electronic warfare tactics range in Germany,” it added.

^{A Czech JAS-39 Gripen takes off as a Spanish Eurofighter taxies at Albacete Air Base in Spain during a multinational training according to NATO tactics, techniques, and procedures. (Image Credit: Antonio Jiménez Santana/NATO AIRCOM)}

The lead of the flying course, Lieutenant Colonel Luca C. Restelli said, “The course offers ample opportunities for participants to improve leadership and flying skills as well as interoperability at the tactical level.”

Lt. Col. Restelli highlighted that “During synthetic and live missions participants develop the tactical leadership skills necessary to plan, brief, fly, and debrief fully integrated multinational formations.”

“Each day a different crew leads the others through all phases of missions that grow in complexity during the course. At the TLP we expose participants to a wide variety of missions that simulate different types of real-world scenarios, updated frequently to incorporate modern warfare tactics and intergrade new weapon systems,” he added.

Tactical Leadership Programme

TLP is a multinational headquarters based at Los Llanos Air Base, Albacete. Ten NATO partners, including military and civilian personnel, are participating in the program.

According to the Commandant of the TLP, Colonel Alberto Martínez Ruiz, the primary objective of the program is to increase the effectiveness of Allies’ air forces in the field of “tactical leadership and conceptual and doctrinal initiatives in support of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) and National Defence Forces.”

*^{Czech Air Force JAS-39 Gripen with an F-35 fighter jet at an air show. (Image Credit: Martin Král/NATO AIRCOM)}*

To achieve its goals, the TLP follows a five-pillar strategy based on the integration of fourth-, fifth-, and next-generation platforms, Live-Virtual-Constructive training, the adoption of the Agile Combat Employment concept, a state-of-the-art Contested-Degraded Operations environment, and the introduction of Joint All Domain factors in the challenging air scenarios, in both the Academic and the Flying courses.