TLP 2008-3 at Florennes Air Base

From the 19th of May till the 13th of June the third TLP session of 2008 was held at Florennes Air Base in Belgium. The main goal of this exercise is to increase the effectiveness of allied tactical air forces through the development of leadership skills, tactical flying capabilities, mission planning and tasking capabilities, and conceptual and doctrinal initiatives. Due to great weather the first three weeks (of a four-week course) only one mission was cancelled due to problems with French Radar (Air Traffic Control).

Next to acadamic lessons a big COMAO (Combined Air Operations) mission was flown by all participants daily. During a normal TLP between 25 and 30 aircraft participate. The mission on the day of our visit June was a TASMO mission over the North Sea near Denmark. TASMO is an acronym for Tactical Air Support for Maritime Operations. During this campaign close cooperation with naval forces is trained. This time some of the aircraft had to defend the Maritime fleet and some had to fight there way through the defence and attack these ships.

Due to the distance to the target area and the length of this mission the element of Air to Air refeulling was integrated in this mission. As a result of this the Czech delegation remained behind at the TLP ramp since they do not have the ability to refuel in the air. Therefore two Czech JAS-39 Gripens (which were first time partipants) flew a seperate two versus one sortie against an L-159 in the Belgium TRA's.

© 2008 3Greens.nl