A lineup of 2 Hornets and 1 Typhoon behind the tanker, waiting for fuel
The skies around the Canary Islands were once again filled with a variety of planes from 15 to 29 October 2021. This year for the very first time two major exercises combined their forces to meet their goals together. Ocean Sky 2021 and EART (European Air Refueling Training) 2021 joined up at the Canary Islands to get the most out of both exercises. Ocean Sky had their home at Gando Air Base on Gran Canaria, while EART operated from Arrecife Airport on Lanzarote. The large airspace surrounding the islands makes it an ideal place for large scale exercises. The possibility for supersonic flights combined with large fighter formations give unique training opportunities for pilots as well as all others involved in the exercises. Ocean Sky 2021 Fighter jets gathered at Gando Air Base for the air combat exercise which is organised every year and hosted by the Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force). Started as a DACT (Dissimilar Air Combat Training) exercise in 2004, the Spanish Air Force uses the exercise as the most important workout in its annual programme. However, the exercise was renamed in 2019 with a new title called Ocean Sky. Originally, Ocean Sky was born to test the combat level of the Spanish combat squadrons through their chain of command. Today, it has become a primarily air-to-air exercise, based on three missions modelled on NATO tactics: the protection of the area, the escort of major aircraft and the entry force. OS21 is the biggest international air combat exercise organised by Spanish Air Force Air Combat Command (MACOM) and is part of the advanced training of the Spanish Air Force Fighter pilots and air combat controllers. During OS21, both pilots and air combat controllers have to face complex scenarios with dissimilar aircraft from Spain and other NATO nations. The underlying purpose of the exercise is to train the capabilities of the Command and Control structure of the Air Combat Command in an air superiority campaign, which allows to increase the level of preparation for air-to-air combat of the fighter units of the Air Force and the invited foreign units.
The exercise is carried out in four phases:
1. A first phase of ‘Generation and deployment of forces’ with the aim of carrying out all personnel and force preparation tasks, as well as the deployment of participating units.
2. A theoretical phase, which includes a series of ‘force integration conferences’ aims at learning about the aircraft participating in the exercise, Flight Safety, Combat Tactics, etc., in order to complement the flight training.
3. A practical phase with DACT and Mixed Fighter Forces Operation (MFFO) type missions, in a wide variety of scenarios and with a large number of aircraft, that allow increasing interoperability between the different participating units, as well as evaluating and improving the tactics, techniques and procedures used in this type of missions. 4. A final phase of ‘withdrawal’ or redeployment. Missions during OS21 focused on the use of multiple media, simultaneously and in demanding scenarios, appropriate to the geostrategic reality. In total, the exercise included around 700 personnel, 40 fighter aircraft and 3 support aircraft. This combined force completed 27 flight missions and more than 500 departures from both bases with an average of 44 departures per day. The daily missions flown by the participants were split in morning and late afternoon missions. To reach the goals of all involved the main missions that were planned for this year’s edition were: Three periods of visual combat (one against one - 1vs1). There were 9 main missions (Main Wave) and upto 30 fighters involved. Varied scenarios included Defence of a No-Fly Zone; Recovery of downed personnel; Air defence and air control and Defence of High Value Air Resources. Eighteen missions of minor entity (Shadow Wave) and upto 14 aircraft involved in two different simultaneous missions. Scenarios remained the same.
AAR-AREAS
Area of operation OS21
A full flightline of Hornets and Typhoons before an afternoon mission
Countermeasures like flares are highly effective in air combat manoeuvres on a 1v1 basis and larger force missions
Gando Air Base is connected to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. Resident Ala 46 uses the shelters to the south side of the base.
The participants made use of the expansive 110,000 square kilometres “Delta 79” operating areas adjacent to the islands. The area is located 46 miles (74km) from Gando Air Base and is one of the largest air combat training areas in Europe – stretching for 186 miles (300km) by 230 miles (370km) – that allows for unrestricted air combat training without speed or height limitations. Air superiority is a necessary condition for the joint action of land, naval and air forces to enjoy freedom of movement, enabling them to achieve their objectives, making the area south of the Islands ideal for such a largescale exercise.
EART 2021
Already in 2012, Air-to-Air Refueling (AAR) was identified as a capability shortfall in Europe and a plan to further develop this capability was set up by the European Defence Agency (EDA). Lessons learnt from operations led to an assessment, that more training dedicated to tanker crews was needed. Therefore, the European Air Transport Command (EATC), supported by EDA, developed the sole European training event for tanker aircraft, the European Air Refueling Training (EART) exercise. EART is organised yearly in conjunction with a large fighter exercise like the Dutch Frisian Flag exercise and aims at training tanker air and ground crews and increasing their know-how in complex multinational scenarios. The event is also a unique opportunity for exchanging information and procedures and building interoperability within the European AAR community. EART is also used as a testbed by EATC experts to develop and refine common procedures and receive immediate feedback from all actors. The 2021 edition was the first time the exercise was not flown from Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands, but instead the exercise used the Canary Islands to join up with Ocean Sky. During EART 2021, EATC spearheaded various cross-national maintenance activities as Colonel Salvatore Melillo, Italian Air Force, EART 2021 Exercise Director explained; “Inside air mobility, air-to-air refueling is one of our topics in EATC. This exercise has a link to a fighter exercise, Ocean Sky, and born to give support to this fighter exercise in terms of air-to-air refueling assets, and at the same time, it’s a good opportunity to share training and to standardise operational procedures inside the air-to-air refueling community. The aim is to test and train current and future processes”.
The A400M of the Spanish Air Force participated for the first time in an EART exercise. The cooperation between different A400 users is invaluable
The French A330 MRTT participated for the first time in EART. An all round way to train planners, aircrews and technicians
The Hellenic Air Force participated with four F-16’s based at Larissa. The participation of different foreign units helps the pilots to prepare for future deployments
These activities also helped in bringing in EATC experts for the technical and logistic branch, A400M maintenance teams from Spain, Germany and France as well as A330MRTT maintenance teams from France and the Multinational Multirole Tanker Transport Unit (MMU) members together. One focus area was to test A400M draft processes based on EATC’s “A400M Cross-Exchange of Technicians Manual” (AXET Manual) and on scenarios (“what if” cases) including an exchange of technicians, one-off certification authorisation, sharing of spare parts, tasking a military approved maintenance organisation from another nations. They also exchanged lessons learned, information and expectations. As for the A330MRTT, EATC’s aim is to present the opportunities and benefits of cross-national maintenance to the MMU and French teams. Together they explored A330MRTT and national maintenance specificities linked to IT or specific French/MMU procedures. Col Melillo added, “The benefit of EATC is the pooling and sharing concept, so sharing information, sharing assets and having this information in between the mission, in order to create a unique organisation for the standardisation of all the manuals and operational procedures”.
The principle aim of the Ocean Sky exercise is to increase interoperability between different types of aircraft
The NATO AWACS was not flying due to technical issues for most of the exercise
The vast airspace south of the Canary Islands provides the ideal place for large force missions. Hornets and Typhoons flew in close cooperation during the exercise
Two Eurofighter Typhoons fly with gear down over the Atlantic Ocean. Ready to go to work!
Text and photos: Erik Bruijns, Mark de Greeuw and Lex de Kort