End of May, helicopter crews and military staff dealing with Composite Air Operations (COMAO) from across Europe met for an EDA-led Planning Course at RAF Linton-on-Ouse, United Kingdom. During a full week, participants went through complex mission planning exercises within a contested air and land scenario, led by the Chief Instructor, Sqn Ldr Mike Gallagher.
Composite Air Operations are interrelated and/or limited in both time and space, where units differing in type and/or role are put under unified control to achieve a common objective.
The need for organising the COMAO course arose from lessons identified during the previous Helicopter Tactics Instructors Course (HTIC) and Helicopter Exercise Programme (HEP) exercise in Italy in 2015. COMAO is a broad and complex subject and the number of military personnel with operational and training experience in this domain is shrinking across Europe. This is especially pertinent to the rotary community which has limited access to existing organisations such as the Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP). Additionally, bespoke courses in which complex helicopter operations are the main focus currently do actually not exist.
The aim of the course at RAF Linton-on-Ouse was to increase participants’ knowledge of COMAO planning, using the so-called 4T’s (Task, Target, Threat and Tactics) process. Equally important, the course allowed to create an environment in which numerous nations meet, work together and develop their capabilities while acquiring an in-depth knowledge and understanding of each other’s platforms.
The course was very well attended which is testimony for the high demand of COMAO planning trainings across Europe. There were helicopter trainees from Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Hungary, Belgium and the UK. Tactics and weapons instructors were provided from Sweden, the Dutch Weapons School and the UK. Vitally, the course was supported by 8 Sqn AWACS from RAF Waddington and 100 Sqn Hawks from RAF Leeming bringing with them a wealth of knowledge concerning Air Battle Space Management and a remarkable breadth of fast-jet capabilities. The UK provided a Ground Liaison Officer with comprehensive intelligence support. In total, the platforms present at the course included the AB212, AS532, Mi-17, CH-47, CH-53, A-109, AH-64, Navy Lynx, E3-D Sentry and the numerous fast-jet platforms represented by the 100 Sqn pilots.
The course began with lectures and platform capability briefs and was followed by 3 days of scenarios with one mission being planned and briefed each day. As the course was progressing, the missions increased in complexity, running from the start of hostilities and covert insertions for bridge demolition and distraction operations to troop reinforcements and Non-combatant Evacuation Operations (NEO). The final event culminated in a complex night mission to arrest a High Value Target (HVT). The threat level was raised each day; therefore the tactics to deal with those threats had to be reconsidered too before being implemented.
The outcome of the course was praised as overwhelmingly positive by all the participants. One of the key takeaways mentioned by them was that such courses need to be longer so that more time can be spent on the theoretical aspects and a deeper understanding of platform capabilities can be gained. This recommendation will most likely be taken on board for the next edition, probably in 2017.
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