{"id":2417,"date":"2015-02-05T21:05:05","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T21:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=2417"},"modified":"2015-02-05T21:05:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T21:05:05","slug":"red-flag-military-excercise-at-nellis-afb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/red-flag-military-excercise-at-nellis-afb\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Flag Military Excercise at Nellis AFB"},"content":{"rendered":"
Red Flag is an aerial combat training exercise which is hosted at Nellis AFB and Eielson AFB. Red Flag exercise is the successor of the Cope Thunder exercise. The Red flag training mission was established in 1975 as one of the initiatives directed by General Robert Dixon, then commander of Tactical Air Command, to better train and prepare our forces for combat. Part of the exercise is to plan and control training, the 414th Combat Training Squadron’s target is to maximize the combat readiness, capability and survivability of participating units by providing realistic training in a combined air, ground, space and electronic threat environment while providing for a free exchange of ideas between forces. Air crew from the USAF, USN, USMC, USA and numerous NATO \/ allied nations’ air forces take part in one of numerous Red Flag exercises held throughout the year, each of which has a lengthy two week duration.<\/p>\n
A typical Red Flag training exercise involves a large variety of attack, fighter and bomber aircraft (F\/A-18, A-10, B-1 etc.), reconnaissance aircraft (Predator, Global Hawk, RC-135, U-2), electronic warfare aircraft (EC-130s, EA-6Bs and F-16CJs), air superiority aircraft (F-22, F-15C, etc), airlift support (C-130, C-17), search and rescue aircraft (HH-60, HC-130, CH-47), Command and Control aircraft (E-3, E-8C etc), A2A (Aerial) refueling aircraft (KC-135, KC-10 etc) as well as ground Command and Control, Space, and Cyber Forces. As Red Flag expanded to include all views of warfare (i.e. command, control, intelligence, electronic warfare) and included night missions to each and every exercise period, the combination of NACTS, improved tactics, and increased aircraft and aircrew capabilities improved flying safety. White forces in the exercise uses the Nellis Air Combat Training System to monitor this mock combat between Red and Blue. NACTS is the world’s most state of the art, sophisticated, tracking system for combat training exercises and allows commanders, safety observers and exercise directors to monitor the mission in depth and keep live score of simulated ‘kills’ while viewing the simulated air battle as it occurs.<\/p>\n
Nellis Map<\/p><\/div>\n
In Red Flag, the \u2018good guys,\u2019 as they are sometimes called by pilots and commanders, square off against camouflaged-coloured, would-be enemy F-16s and F-15s from the 65th and 64th aggressor squadrons at Nellis AFB. The jets lurk in the yonder of the almost 3 million-acre range north of Las Vegas to make highly-realistically simulated attacks.<\/p>\n
In previous Red Flag exercises, the Air Force typically spent around $20 million to $60 million to fly friendly and aggressor aircraft, fire cannons, missiles and drop bombs.<\/p>\n