A Blue Air pilot from the Polish Air Force's 6 ELT based at Poznan-Krzesiny AB salutes the camera before the first COMAO mission on September 12, 2013. On his shoulder is a patch commemorating participation in exercise Red Flag-Alaska 12-2.

The Turkish Air Force’s 142 Filo from Konya AB deployed two of its Fighting Falcons as part of the Red Air during the first half of the course. Here, F-16D 07-1016 taxies towards Albacete’s active runway equipped with a flight profile recorder pod, the in-flight component of the autonomous air combat manoeuvring instrumentation system.

A French Mirage 2000-5F takes off on October 1, 2013 to take part in a combat search and rescue mission. The execution of each day’s missions took place between 1300Z and 1600Z. In the background are Ala 14 Mirage F1Ms retired by the Spanish Air Force in mid-2013.

The last week of FC 2013-5 saw the participation of a Spanish Navy SH-3D and an AB212 and an Ejercito del Aire AS332B from 803 Escuadron as well as this HH-3F from 15° Stormo at Cervia, Italy, for CSAR/personnel recovery missions.

Aeronautica Militare Italiana Piaggio P180M Avantis are regularly tasked to support TLP missions.

A Mirage 2000D equipped with an inert SAMP 250kg (500lb) laser-guided bomb takes off towards the NFZ (no-fly zone) training area programmed for September 27, 2013. The crisis in Syria kept the French contingent on-call to deploy during a large part of the course.

FC 2013-5 involved 24 aircraft assigned to the Blue Force and 14 in Red Air, the largest number of all the courses held in 2013.

The excellent weather at Albacete has boosted the number of missions flown during each course. During FC 2013-5, all planned missions were able to be executed, achieving a total of 760 flight hours during the 20-day course.

This AMI KC-767A belonging to 14° Stormo from Pratica di Mare acted as a high-value air asset, enabling more complexity in the planning of missions within the COMAO.