Nellis Air Force Base: Red Flag 2016-1

Red Flag 2016-1 took place from January 25th to February 12th, 2016. Bas Stubert and Hans van der Wilt report for GMAP from Nellis AFB.

Origins

Red Flag saw the light of day in 1975 in order to prepare aircrew for combat – something they needed if they were to survive the first ten combat missions. Experiences from the Vietnam war showed that it was in these crucial first ten missions that most aircraft were shot down with crews killed or captured, leading to a very low 2.2 to 1 kill-ratio, 2.2 kills for every aircraft lost. The aim of Red Flag was to provide a realistic aerial combat training exercise during which aircrew would fly ten missions – their ‘first ten combat missions’ – in order to increase their survival chances in actual combat operations. Nellis AFB in Nevada was chosen as the base that would host Red Flag.
From its humble beginnings in 1975 Red Flag has grown considerably. According to Lt. Col. Kevin ‘Flash’ Gordon, 414th Combat Training Squadron deputy commander, around 2,400 personnel, 120+ aircraft, 39 units (of which 32 were flying units) and 3 countries participated in Red Flag 2016-1. These consisted of US Air Force and US Navy aircraft plus aircraft from Australia and the United Kingdom.

Missions

Missions at Red Flag are flown between the Blue (own) and Red (opposing) forces. The nucleus of the Red forces are the F-16C’s from the 64th AGRS. They fly their F-16’s to simulate MiG-29 Fulcrum, Su-27/Su-30 Flanker and other possible opponents. These will at times be augmented by other aircraft from the Red Flag participants, as such B-1B bombers were tasked with ‘Red’ missions several times, flying attack missions the Blue forces had to engage.
As Master Sergeant Kelly Martin, 95th Fighter Squadron F-22 Raptor aircraft maintainer, explained each squadron usually brings everything they need for the Red Flag deployment with them. As Red Flag is a ‘total’ training exercise squadrons are supposed to watch their own supplies as it is not uncommon to get ‘bogus’ orders to move their equipment to the far reaches of the ramp, thereby making it more difficult to maintain and fly their aircraft.

A typical Red Flag mission during 2016-1 would take about 90 minutes. After launch, aircraft would first top off their fuel from a KC-135 before engaging in stage one: air-to-air combat. In this stage air superiority fighters such as the Typhoon, F-15 and F-22 would engage the Red air F-16’s. After this first sweep, usually about 10 minutes,  anti-radar aircraft such as EA-18G Growlers and anti-radar equipped F-16’s would engage the SAM sites before the strike package F-15’s, F-16’s, F/A-18’s and B-1’s would attack their targets. All aircraft were equipped with a GPS transponder, allowing real-time monitoring and real-time kill removal if an aircraft was ‘shot down’ by simulated surface-to-air of air-to-air missiles.
During Red Flag 2016-1, missions were flown in the afternoon and after dark. This time schedule made it possible for the other units at Nellis to fly their missions from 08:00 until about 14:00.