RESCUE MISSION COMMANDER Flying Course

Course objectives

The TLP RMC Flying Course aims to teach technical and tactical skills and develop flying capabilities of Rescue Mission Commanders (RMCs) and to provide NATO Air Forces a pool of experts able to conduct such sensitive missions in symmetrical and asymmetrical conflicts.

The course focuses on weapons employment, survivor localization and protection tactics, coordination and protection of mixed type packages including fighter aircraft, rescue and combat helicopters and C2 or AEW from different nations. By providing expert knowledge and detailed teachings and debriefings, the RMC flying course will graduate each participant as a reference in Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) missions, allowing them to spread this expertise through their unit and country.

Course syllabus

This 2-week long course uses a building block approach through 7 missions:

• 7 Live missions: these step by step missions teach the participant from basics of CSAR up to a variety of CSAR missions including multi-survivor, non-conventional Search and Rescue, Immediate and on-call CSAR.

Each day a different crew leads the mission as Rescue Mission Commander, or “Salty 1” through all phases. Participants will be exposed to Salty 1 to 4 specificities and responsibilities in low to medium intensity conflicts scenarios.

Missions are flown from Albacete and use surrounding overland areas.

Course length and start/finish of course

Nominal course duration is two (2) weeks [nine (9) days]. The TLP RMC Flying Course begins on Monday of the first scheduled course week. The first week includes all necessary Academic lectures and the three (3) first missions, followed by one (1) week with four (4) consecutive live missions. The Saturday of the course is a working day. Aircraft should be ready to fly on the first Wednesday 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 RMC Flying Course fly-window is one wave in the afternoon. This allows an additional “shadow wave” in the morning or at night if appropriate bi-lateral agreements with Spain are coordinated.

Course target audience

The TLP COMAO Flying Course aims to educate and graduate tactical fast jet aircrews as RMC leads (Salty 1/3 equivalent) or RMC wingman (Salty 2/4) in the joint environment of CSAR COMAO with the participation of other already qualified units such as SERE Team, Extraction Forces, and Rescue Vehicles.

The lectures and missions are designed for the advanced tactical aircrew instructor and if possibleTLP COMAO flying course graduate, with more than 500 flight hours on his platform.

The logical progression of the TLP course attendance is the RMC academics course, followed by the TLP COMAO flying Course and finally the TLP RMC Flying Course.

The secondary target audience is support personnel likely to be involved in CSAR operations in the future, including non-combat ready aircrews, fighter controllers, intel, and C2ISR operators.

Course composition

The maximum number of participants for a flying course is as follows: 8 jets (4 pairs) with their respective aircrews, 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. Based on limited slots, if there is high demand for the course, the limit will be 2 per nation. TLP member nations will have priority.

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. Cost of an RMC slot will be the same as COMAO Flying Course.

Short notice requests (especially Red Air / SBAD / Support assets) are 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.