Exercises

In order to consolidate aircrew training, all three Services regularly participate in military exercises. Increasingly, with the growing emphasis on joint operations, training is being carried out on a tri-Service basis and this inevitably means that exercises will now generally involve more than one Service. Exercises vary in size and scope from the small-scale, involving only a handful of aircraft, to the extremely large, during which multiple formations of aircraft will simulate a force package carrying out attacks on a number of targets. In every case, the exercise will have a specific objective. This could be relatively straightforward - for example, to deliver airborne troops to an agreed landing site - or much more complex, such as to test the effectiveness of the UK’s air defences. Larger exercises will generally include an element of COMAO training, explained below.

Composite Air Operation (COMAO) training

Air operations today are complex. Typically, they can involve different aircraft types, often from more than one country, operating in separate but complementary roles. In-flight refuelling tankers, air defence, photo-reconnaissance and airborne early warning aircraft play a vital part in ensuring that any risk to the mission's success is minimised, whether that mission is to provide close air support for ground troops or rescue a downed airman from behind enemy lines. This concept of mission and mission support aircraft operating as a single force package is known as Composite Air Operations (COMAO). To be successful during a conflict, COMAOs require detailed planning and expert coordination, as well as an unquestioning trust in the abilities of each participant. They must, like any other military tactic, be practised regularly, and as realistically as possible.

All three Services regularly participate in practice COMAOs, both in the UK and overseas. A typical practice COMAO will involve 30-40 aircraft, but can involve up to 60. The composition of each one will be different, but most of those carried out in the UK will generally involve a mix of Tornado GR1s, Harriers, Sea Harriers and/or Jaguars at low level, and VC-10s and/or Tristar tankers and Sentry airborne early warning aircraft at medium level. Tornado F3s normally operate in the air defence role at both medium and low level, providing both combat air patrols and escort protection for the mission aircraft. COMAO principles apply equally to the delivery or recovery of troops and equipment behind, or close to, enemy lines and, as a result, Hercules transport aircraft and helicopters will participate in practice COMAOs on a regular basis.

Air operations are now increasingly being carried out by multi-national forces and our aircrew are just as likely to find themselves alongside aircraft from, for example, the United States, France, Italy and Germany as they are those of the RAF. Different air forces, however, offer different capabilities and often operate different equipment; they may also have slightly different operating procedures; there may sometimes be language barriers to overcome and, even when they do use the same equipment, two countries may well employ it for different tasks. It is therefore essential that UK forces train regularly with their NATO allies to aid interoperability, and promote mutual understanding and appreciation of each others’ skills, vital to mission success in an operational environment. One aspect of such multi-national training is NATO's Tactical Leadership Programme.

Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP)

NATO's Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) is aimed at providing experienced aircrew with valuable leadership training in a multi-national environment. Six TLP courses, each lasting for three weeks, are run each year from Florennes in Belgium. The UK participates in every course and has permanent representation on the directing and planning staff. Flying activity, which centres around practice COMAOs, takes place throughout Europe, including over the United Kingdom. However, we limit the number of COMAOs which can be flown here to 24 per year in order to ensure that the UK does not become overburdened. In order to allow TLP staff the flexibility to manage the flying aspects of the course according to the vagaries of the European climate, they are not required to indicate in advance which dates TLP activity will be taking place over the UK.