Mission Commanders Course

PUMA FORCE DEPLOY TO FRENCH MISSION COMMANDERS COURSE

The French Mission Commanders’ Course is an annual French Air and Space Force (FASF) led exercise conducted to train a small cadre of rotary wing pilots who aim to qualify as a “Mission Commander”, enabling them to lead multiple-type formations on operations.

Written By: Sgt McMillen and Flt Lt Cushen

Having participated in the course in 2021, the UK Puma Force was once again invited to attend and was also given the opportunity to put forwards a candidate to be qualified – the first non-FASF pilot to be afforded such an opportunity.

Prior to the flying phase, the UK nomination, Flt Lt Knight of B Flt 33 Sqn, attended a “virtual week” during which he and his FASF MC candidates undertook mission planning and briefing together prior to “flying” missions utilising VR simulators at Orange Air Force Base. During this period, three UK Pumas left RAF Benson to begin the transit to the LIVEX location of Solenzara Air Force Base on the isle of Corsica; a place not unknown to the Puma Force, which trained there during the work-up for Op OLYMPIC. Due to the distance, the formation overnighted at Orange, catching up with Flt Lt Knight and the other candidates on the way down. The following morning the three Pumas headed south for a final re-fuel, before transiting across the south coast of France, prior to completing the 180-kilometre over-water transit. By mid-afternoon they finally touched down at their new home of Solenzara, meeting up with their new colleagues for the exercise, which included Caracals, Fennecs, Super Pumas, Puma 1s, a Rafael and ISR assets, as well as troops from the French Air Force, Army and Foreign Legion.

The two-week flying phase commenced with a familiarisation flight on the Monday to practice formation keeping between the different aircraft types and emplaning and deplaning practice with the troops before the tactical phase began in earnest.

Operating in warm conditions, the exercise package conducted a variety of mission sets, from Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) or Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) style evacuations, up to direct assaults and Combat search and rescue (CSAR) in equally varied terrain. The nature of Corsica’s terrain is such that, within a 10nm transit, it wasn’t uncommon to have to climb from sea level to c. 5000’; as many will be aware the change in aircraft performance due to this height difference certainly gave the crews much to consider in their planning cycles!

As with most exercises, as the serials progressed the missions became more complex, and by the second week the exercise had moved into the assessment phase. During the first mission of the second week, Flt Lt Knight conducted his assessment mission. The complex task began with an ISR soak on the target followed by air to ground strikes by a Rafael and Fennecs. Once he had cleared the formation onto the target through the JTACs, Flt Lt Knight coordinated the mission from the overhead. Managing the capabilities of different aircraft types, and liaising closely with the Ground Mission Commander, Flt Lt Knight enabled in the capture of a ‘high-value target’ and successful extraction of all friendly troops, leading to mission success and the award of the Mission Commander qualification.

By the time they returned to Benson, the UK Pu detachment had managed to achieve just under 90 flying hours for the deployment, down in no small part to the excellent work of Flt Lt Carr-Briggs and WO Warren and their engineering team. Looking forwards for future iterations of the exercise, with Puma Force now deployed to Brunei and shortly to Cyprus, a small but experienced team of aircrew from 27 Sqn observed the exercise to see how they might fit into the exercise in the future.