Ocean Sky (previously known as DACT) is an international air combat exercise carried out by the Spanish Air Force at Gando Air Base (Canary Islands). The main focus of this exercise is training pilots and flight controllers in complex and realistic air combat mission scenarios with dissimilar aircraft from different units and NATO nations.
Ocean Sky (OS) is one of the few exercises which is completely focus on air to air missions, and its main advantages are that it takes place in October (when the weather in Europe is far from good) in the Canaries with optimal weather conditions and a huge air space area (known as DELTA) without altitude, speed and use of chaff/flare limitations.
OS19 ran from October the 16th till the 31st and it began with theoretical sessions that were held during the first weekend and 10 days of intense flying comprising two waves per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Participating aircraft and units in OS19 included EF-18M Hornets from Ala 12 and 15, EF-18A Hornets from Ala 46, Eurofighter EF2000 from Ala 11 and 14, F-15C Eagle from 48th Fighter Wing (USAFE) and F-16C Fighting Falcon from 151 Filo (Turkish Air Force), supporting aircraft included an E-3 Sentry AWACS from NATO Component, a Falcon 20 EW aircraft from Grupo 47 and two air refueling aircraft from Ala 31, a KC-130 Hercules and an A400M Atlas.
In numbers: 500 people took part in the exercise plus 50 fighters and 4 support aircraft, 25 missions were carried out with more than 600 sorties in total during the 10 days of flying.
MISSIONS
Two complex mission with dissimilar aircraft and Mixed Fighter Formations were planned, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Each of them with more than 30 fighters in the air at the same time and with supporting aircraft with command and control, electronic warfare and tanker duties.
The participating units changed roles from blue air (the good guys) and red air (the bad guys) depending on the needs of the mission
Tactical Leadership Programme (TLP) Staff joined Spanish Air Combat Command (MACOM) for mission preparation and development of the scenarios, which included no flight zones, high value assets protection, offensive counter air, defensive counter air, etc. There is no doubt that experience gained during the Syrian Civil War and the complexity of Russian, Syrian, Israeli and NATO fighters flying and fighting in near or sometimes the same airspace was used during this exercise.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
The Spanish Air Force put a great effort in Media coverage of the exercise, with videos, photos and news released everyday on the social media, moreover a media day and a spotter’s day were held in order of showing OS 19 to the general public and the aviation enthusiast.
The Media day included a briefing with the exercise organizers, interviews with pilots and officers and opportunities to photograph and video recording of the air ops and the parking area.
The spotters day allowed that more than 200 aviation enthusiast could see the parking movements, the departures and the arrivals of the first wave of flights of the day, which include more than 30 sorties of fighters and support aircraft.
