By Sacha Jussen and Piet Luijken
When the Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) started multi-national flying operations in 1979 at Jever in Germany, no one could have imagined how military aviation in Central Europe
would change over the next decades. The TLP always reflected the political and military changes from scenarios of the "Cold War" to "hot" conflicts within a globalised world.
While at the beginning the TLP mainly consisted of aircrew drawn from the former Second and Fourth Allied Tactical Air Forces in Central and Western Europe, the withdrawal of
Canadian Forces from Germany by 1993 slowly lead to a growing participation of South European NATO Air Forces.
With the TLP moving from Jever to a more central position at Florennes, Belgium, in 1989 and the continuing decrease of air forces in Europe, the Belgian host base became more and
more attractive for aircraft enthusiasts from all over Europe. For many, the TLP not only featured the only large-scale multi-national air
exercise taking place regularly from one single airbase in Europe, but also provided one of the few remaining chances for European aircraft enthusiasts to experience
activities of a wide range of military aircraft during a day-trip.
However, this exercise has moved again, this time to Spain. From July 2009, the exercise will be hosted at Albacete-Los Llanos. In the previous years, the focus of the exercise has
shifted and performing these exercises during night-time in large airspaces has becoming more important. As this was not possible at Florennes due to night-time restrictions and
airspace restictions, Deployed Flying Courses at other airfields were the only possibilities to exercise in the dark. At Albacete/Los Llanos, these facilities are possible during every
exercise, next to improved weather conditions throughout the year.
With these pages we would like to provide valuable information for all plane spotters, photographers and enthusiasts
interested in better understanding activities of the Tactical Leadership Programme and experiencing "successful" days at Albacete-Los Llanos.
Important note: A lot of information on the following pages is based on observations made while visiting Albacete-Los Llanos during various TLP flying courses. Please be aware that
procedures of TLP flying operations might change at any time. We cannot give any guaranty that any future TLP flying course will be structured as outlined on
the following pages.
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Airbase History
