Last Friday 9th February finished the Flying Course 2024-1 in the Tactical Leadership Programme. The first flying course of the year, which started on Monday 22nd January has had a duration of 3 weeks, as usual.
The total number of participants hosted by TLP was approximately 650, with 40 of them graduating, including 28 pilots, 6 intelligence officers and 6 air traffic controllers.
The flights took place from Monday to Friday in the afternoon, and they started on Monday 29th January, as the first week was dedicated to academic activity and flights in the MACE simulator.
The nations participating as Blue Air in this flying course provided 24 platforms and they were Italy with Eurofighter, Spain with EF18 and Eurofighter, France with Rafale, Greece with F16, Switzerland with F18 and the Czech Republic with JAS-39. As for the opposing force (Red Air), there was a total of 10 aircraft, with France participating with Rafale, Italy and Spain with Eurofighter, Switzerland with F18 and Greece with F16.
In support of the flying course, NATO AWACS air traffic control aircraft were present, along with the SP Air and Space Force’s CRCs during the missions.
Also noteworthy is the participation of the MQ-9 Predator B (NR-05) unmanned aircraft from the Air and Space Army, as well as two Italian instructors specialised in personnel rescue missions, and American and national tactical air control teams.
As an anti-aircraft threat, real air defense systems from the Spanish Army and the Spanish Air and Space Force participated with the MISTRAL systems. Several threat simulation systems from the American company POLYGON also participated, which were deployed in different parts of the area of operation.
With regard to the intervention of other air assets, two Italian HH101 helicopters and a Spanish NH90 as Blue Air, together with their respective extraction teams, and two American SH-60 helicopters on the Red side, took part in the missions.
A C295 tactical transport aircraft and an Italian KC-767 air-to-air refueling aircraft were also on hand. Also, during the flight period, a SAR helicopter was available at the San Javier Air Base.
Finally, the TLP facilities have continued to use the MACE flight simulator, which allows pilots to train not only in the virtual environment, but also to interact with aircraft on real missions through communication protocols.