COMAO Flying Course

Course objectives.

The TLP COMAO Flying Course aims to improve the tactical leadership skills and flying capabilities of front line fighter Mission Commanders (MCs), 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 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).

Course syllabus

During each course, a building block approach is used to progress the crews through a total of 12 missions:

• 3 “Synthetic” missions: planned as real life sorties but flown in the TLP Synthetics System for plan validation. These missions aim to familiarize the participants with the planning process and COMAO procedures, start building up leadership skills and enhance teamwork and cooperation among aircrews.
• 9 Live missions: these missions aim at challenging the participants to develop the tactical leadership skills necessary to plan, brief, fly, and debrief fully integrated multi-national formations.

Each day a different crew leads the others through all phases of missions that grow in complexity during the course. Participants are exposed 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.

Missions are flown from Albacete and use both overland and overseas training areas. Long range missions may use air to air refueling depending on availability. A wide range of terrain targets are available.

Course length and start/finish of course.

Nominal course duration is three (3) and a half weeks [twenty one (21) days]. The TLP COMAO Flying Course begins on Thursday of the first scheduled course week. The first seven (7) working days include all necessary Academic lectures and the three (3) Synthetic missions, followed by two (2) weeks filled with nine (9) consecutive live missions. The third Saturday of the course is a working day. Aircraft should be ready to fly on the second Monday of the course and the last Friday is reserved for redeployment.

Actual course length may be adjusted to account for other TLP requirements and/or Spanish national or regional holidays that may disrupt course continuity.

The TLP COMAO Flying Course fly-window is one wave in the afternoon. Therefore, based on bilateral Spain-Your Nation’s agreement, and with previous coordination, it is normally possible to fly the deployed aircraft by non-participant aircrews in an additional ‘shadow wave’, in the morning or at night.

Course target audience.

The TLP COMAO Flying Course aims to educate tactical fast jet aircrews in the joint environment of COMAO. The lectures and missions are designed for the junior tactical aircrew or individuals with limited COMAO experience, typically at the senior First Lieutenant/young Captain (OF-1/2) level with more than 500 flight hours on type/in role.

The logical progression of the TLP course attendance is the Support Course, followed by the COMAO Synthetics Course and finally the COMAO Flying .

The secondary target audience is support personnel likely to be involved in a COMAO in the future, including intelligence officers, fighter controllers and C2ISR operators.

Course composition.

The ideal number of participants for a flying course is as follows: 24 jets (12 pairs) with their respective aircrews, 5 GCI/C2ISR participants and 6 INTEL participants. Slot allocation will be coordinated during the annual Scheduling Conference for the following calendar year.

Flying course application process

If you wish to apply for this course, please follow the MoU nation planning/bidding process as outlined in the TLP MoU and PoO.

For non TLP MoU nations or individuals please identify the date of the next TLP Scheduling Conference (reference to TLP calendar) and send a representative to participate in the Planning process.

Short notice requests (especially Red Air / Support assets) can be forwarded to the TLP Admin office through the TLP contact email as provided on this website (cadmin@tlp-info.org).

Joining instructions

Once participation is confirmed after the annual Steering Group conference / by Mission Coordinator, the Detachment Commanders need to request the Flying Course Welcome package from (cadmin@tlp-info.org)
Other useful documents can be found in the Flying course download section.