When the Royal Air Force released the figures for Exercise Cobra Warrior 26-2 on 13 October, the headline number was 942 sorties. The more interesting number was smaller: fourteen. That was how many "complex missions" the five nations flew from RAF Waddington, and each of those was a COMAO.

COMAO stands for Composite Air Operations. It is NATO shorthand for the way modern air forces actually go to war: not as single jets or pairs, but as a package of many aircraft with different jobs, often from several countries and several bases, all flying one plan against one objective. Here is how one is put together.

The Problem a COMAO Solves

A modern defended target is protected by fighters, surface-to-air missiles and radars that are all linked together. No single aircraft type can deal with all of that and still deliver its weapons. So the job is split up. A strike package, as it is usually described, combines bombers or attack jets with fighters to protect them from enemy aircraft, "Wild Weasels" to suppress anti-aircraft defences, reconnaissance aircraft, and tankers to extend the range. AWACS and stand-off jamming aircraft support the package without entering the most dangerous airspace.

The idea was hammered out over North Vietnam, where American raids grew into elaborate packages of strikers, escorts and Wildwiesel. It has been the default shape of a large air operation ever since.

Who Does What in the Package

• Strikers. The reason the package exists: the aircraft carrying weapons for the target, such as F-16s, Eurofighter Typhoon or F-15Es.
• Sweep and escort. Air-superiority fighters, such as the F-22 Raptor, that go ahead of the strikers to clear enemy fighters out of the way, or stay with them to protect them.
• SEAD. Suppression of Enemy Air Defences: jets that hunt the radars and missile sites, or force them to switch off, so the strikers can get through.
• Electronic attack. Jammers such as the EA-18G Growler that blind or confuse enemy radars and communications.
• Tankers. Aircraft such as the KC-135 that refuel the package on the way in and on the way out.
• Command and control. Ein E-3 AWACS or similar radar aircraft that watches the whole battle and tells each element what is coming.
• Reconnaissance. Aircraft or drones that look at the target before the attack and check the damage afterwards.

The Mission Commander: One Pilot, Dozens of Jets

Someone has to turn all those pieces into one plan, and in NATO that person is usually a front-line fighter pilot acting as mission commander. They decide the route, the timing, which element goes first and how everyone stays out of everyone else's way. On the day, they fly the mission themselves while leading the package.

NATO runs a school for exactly this job. The Tactical Leadership Programme at Albacete-Los Llanos Air Base in Spain runs a COMAO Flying Course that, in NATO's words, aims to improve "the tactical leadership skills and flying capabilities of front line fighter Mission Commanders". For the 2021 course NATO deployed an E-3A AWACS with 50 crew from Geilenkirchen to fly the battle management.

Flying Course 2021-4 at the NATO Tactical Leadership Programme, Albacete. Video: Tactical Leadership Programme

How a COMAO Mission Unfolds

A large-force mission runs to a familiar rhythm. It starts with planning, often the day before, when the mission commander and the leads of each element build the plan around one fixed point: the time the weapons must hit the target. Everything else is worked backwards from that moment, from tanker slots to take-off times at different bases.

The whole package then briefs together. In the air, the elements join up, refuel and push towards the target in a carefully timed sequence: sweep fighters first to clear the sky, SEAD and jammers to suppress the defences, then the strikers, with the AWACS controlling the picture throughout. Afterwards comes the part pilots remember most: the mass debrief, where every shot, every loss and every mistake is reconstructed.

Why Red Flag Exists

The best-known place to fly a COMAO is Red Flag at Luftwaffenstützpunkt Nellis, Nevada. It began on 29 November 1975, after a US Air Force study called Project Red Baron II found that a pilot's chances of surviving combat rose dramatically once he had flown ten combat missions. Red Flag was built to give crews those first ten missions in training, against a realistic "Red Force" enemy, over a range of roughly 60 by 100 nautical miles.

Inside Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base. Video: Sam Eckholm

Europe has its own versions. Cobra Warrior in the UK, Frisian Flag in the Netherlands and the TLP courses in Spain all exist for the same reason: an air force that has only ever flown in pairs will not suddenly know how to fight as a package of dozens of jets on the first day of a war.

A COMAO demonstration at the Portuguese Air Force's 70th anniversary show at Beja Air Base. Video: PMO Aviation Channel

Sources: NATO Allied Air Command (Tactical Leadership Programme, December 2021); Royal Air Force (Cobra Warrior 26-2 figures, October 2026); Wikipedia (Exercise Red Flag; Strike package).