Between Tuesday 5 October and Thursday 14 October, missions were flown every working day between 8.00 Z and 9.00 Z and between 12.00 Z and 14.00 Z.
All times in the programme are stated in Zulu time, the military designation of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Local time in October in the Netherlands is two hours ahead of Zulu time. Military personnel work together internationally in different time zones. In order to avoid confusion when talking about times, they use Zulu time.
NTM 2010 focused on the following exercise missions:
- Ground-Assisted Air Interdiction. Air interdiction missions deep in enemy territory in collaboration with Special Forces, often targeted at High Value Targets. In these missions, it is absolutely essential for forces to have 'eyes on target', for instance to confirm a Positive ID or to prevent Collateral Damage.
- Combat Search and Rescue. CSAR missions are missions in which downed pilots are rescued from enemy territory.
- Air Raid with CASEVAC. Air raids are missions where helicopters insert ground forces close to an objective (i.e. weapon cache or terrorist hideout). The ground forces expeditiously exit the helicopter(s) and seize the objective. This mission can vary in size from several helicopters to several waves of helicopters. CASEVAC is short for casualty evacuation
- QRF and Recce. QRF stands for Quick Reaction Forces. Usually, these are troops and/or helicopters that are on standby duty back at the operating base, to be called upon when units in the field need assistance. Recce is short for reconnaissance.
- High-Value Target. High-Value Targets are persons or structures that are of high value to the enemy, and therefore important targets for friendly forces. An example of an HVT is a local terrorist leader, without whom the terrorist cell would cease to function effectively.