Page 12 - AirForces - Monthly (February 2020)

Exercise
Report

share information on particular
platform attributes and to establish
guidelines for flight safety and
combat tactics. This was followed
by the practical air combat missions
in which the participants launched,
mustered and then engaged in
some complex air battles that
saw up to 18-v-14 engagements.
Scenarios were expanded in
order to test the full remit of EdA
command and control structures
with combat search and rescue of a 1
simulated downed pilot, through to field of air defence. We have a
air cover for a humanitarian mission unique airspace, which allows us
or the evacuation of non-combatants to carry out missions of extreme
from an area in crisis. All the time, complexity and to recreate all
this was being conducted in the kinds of scenarios. In addition,
face of an impressive opposition the weather, which is usually a
force drawn from the participants. limiting factor for air operations,
Lt Gen Cesar Simón, the head here is normally not a problem.”
of the EdA’s Mando Aéreo de He also made specific mention
Combate (MACOM, Air Combat of the Delta 79 airspace, which
Command), commented: “It is is located 46 miles (74km) from
the most important exercise of Gando, and is one of the largest air
those carried out in Europe in the combat training areas in Europe –
2 stretching for 186 miles (300km)
by 230 miles (370km) – which
allows for unrestricted air combat
training without speed or height
limitations. Col Glenn LeMasters
from the US Embassy in Spain
added: “The Ocean Sky exercise
is a fantastic opportunity for NATO
allies to work and improve together
while gaining interoperability.”
During the 12 intense days of
Ocean Sky 2019, the participating
units completed 24 missions, which
included around 500 individual
sorties. The activity included
complex joint briefings and post-
mission debriefs that reportedly
3 lasted up to 12 hours. AFM
1: Another brace of Spanish Hornets, this time two-seat EF-18BMs from Ala 12, based at Torrejón. The individual aircraft are CE.15-11
‘12-74’ and CE.15-08 ‘12-71’, carrying inert IRIS-T missiles on the wingtips. Ala 12 has two squadrons: 121 Escuadrón (callsign ‘Poker’)
and 122 Escuadrón (callsign ‘Tennis’), both equipped with upgraded EF-18Ms. 2: Eurofighters from the Spanish Air Force’s Ala 11 at
Morón and Ala 14 at Albacete joined the fight. This is single-seat C.16-65/10054 ‘14-23’ from Ala 14, whose jets wear the famous Don
Quixote badge on both sides of the vertical fin. 3: Ala 12 EF-18AM Hornet C.15-56 ‘12-14’ plugs into the tanker. Aerial refuelling was
provided by examples of the A400M and KC-130H, both from the Ejército del Aire. 4: Another of the Lakenheath Eagles taking part
in Ocean Sky was F-15C 86-0178 ‘LN’. More than 275 US airmen and a dozen F-15Cs joined the manoeuvres, making it the largest
USAF engagement in Spain in 2019.

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12 // February 2020 #383 www.Key.Aero

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