Extra Red Flag week allows for more missions

Extra Red Flag week allows for more missions

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By Erik Holmes - Staff writer

Posted : Monday Jan 19, 2009 5:49:29 EST

In the most significant change in its more than 30-year history, the Red Flag aerial combat exercise held at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., will expand from two to three weeks for the exercise that begins in late February and will include a greater emphasis on close-air support missions.

The changes will allow Red Flag to more closely represent how a modern war likely would unfold, said Lt. Col. Paul Johnson, deputy commander of Nellis’ 414th Combat Training Squadron, which runs Red Flag.

“Red Flag has not evolved the same way as the rest of the world has evolved as far as the more capable threats that are out there and also the more capable weapons systems the U.S. Air Force currently has,” Johnson said. “To make it more realistic, we’re trying to go to this three-week Flag to get some more realistic training and try to cater more to what’s going on right now in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The number of aircraft participating will jump from an average of about 70 to more than 100, he said.

The Red Flag expansion is a trial only, and Air Combat Command ultimately will decide whether to go with the three-week exercise for one or more of the five annual iterations or to return to the two-week format.

The shift to the longer exercise was prompted by two training needs identified by ACC’s Realistic Training Review Board: to place a greater emphasis on the kind of close-air support missions the Air Force is flying in the Middle East, and to give F-22 Raptors more opportunity for integrated training with other air-superiority aircraft.

CAS already has a role in Red Flag, but that portion is almost a separate exercise run parallel to the more conventional air-to-air portion, Johnson said. Now, CAS will become the focus of the third week of Red Flag.

“Our typical Red Flag had a CAS scenario ... but there has not been as much emphasis placed on it,” Johnson said. “The last week, that is going to be the focus.”

Johnson said that the service’s Raptors cannot operate alone in a future large-scale war: The F-22s would have to operate in concert with the less-capable F-15Cs, and Red Flag provides the only opportunity for Raptors and Eagles to practice together.

There are two squadrons of F-22s at Langley Air Force Base, Va., and two at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, but each base has only one F-15C squadron, so there are not enough aircraft to provide both a collaborative F-15 force and an aggressor F-15 force to fly against.

“F-22s don’t have a lot of venues to do that,” Johnson said. “To integrate with the F-15, you’ve got to have an adversary to fly against.”

Another benefit of the longer Red Flag is that it could allow pilots to get more sorties under their belts.

The exercise is designed to provide pilots with eight to 10 air-to-air sorties during the main large-force exercise, based on statistics from the Vietnam War showing that pilots are more likely to get shot down during those initial sorties. Red Flag was created in 1975 as an opportunity for pilots to fly those mistake-prone initial missions in an exercise environment.

But in practice, said Maj. Keith Lowman, team chief for the three-week Red Flag, pilots usually fly only five or six air-to-air sorties during Red Flag because they also must fly the close-air support missions going on at the same time.

“By doing two weeks of a full [large-force exercise] and then that third week focusing on CAS, we don’t have to pick between mission sets,” Lowman said.

A ‘more realistic exercise’

The trial run for the three-week Red Flag will take place from Feb. 23 to March 14.

The units will begin arriving at Nellis a couple of days ahead of time and attend briefings Feb. 22. Flight operations begin the next day.

The schedule is meant to emulate a real air war, in which air dominance assets — F-22s and F-15Cs from Langley — are brought in to destroy enemy defenses before other aircraft enter the fight.

Raptors dominate the first few days, destroying surface-to-air missile sites and other targets that could threaten aircraft. B-2s also would be involved in this portion of a war, but they are not participating in the exercise this time. There are only 20 B-2s in inventory, so they cannot participate in all Red Flags.

The Raptors will be joined by F-15Cs to protect the refueling tankers and airborne warning and control system aircraft, as well as infiltrate enemy airspace and shoot down F-15Cs and F-16s that are flying as an aggressor force.

“The first few days is kind of dedicated to … kicking down the door, taking down the strategic SAMs, making the airspace more permissive for the rest of the guys to roll in,” Johnson said.

The next stage, during the end of the first week and the entire second week, will be similar aerial exercises involving second-wave aircraft such as F-15E Strike Eagles, Navy F-18s and EA-6B Prowlers, F-16s, Australian F-111s, British Tornado fighters, Predator unmanned aerial vehicles and C-130 variants.

The F-22s and F-15Cs, the primary air dominance fighters, will depart after the first two weeks.

The final week of the exercise is dedicated to close-air support, with A-10s and helicopters joining the fray. Three or four teams of joint terminal attack controllers from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., and Fort Hood, Texas, will also participate and practice calling in airstrikes.

“That last week we’re going to flex into ... ground, urban warfare, close-air support, protecting convoys — again, something that’s more akin to what’s going on these days,” Johnson said.

Whether the three-week format becomes the new standard for Red Flag will hinge on whether ACC leaders think the benefits of the longer exercise are worth the added costs.

“It’s going to cost more,” Johnson said, “and we need to determine if it’s worth the money to try and change Red Flag to what a lot of people have wanted to see — a more mission-oriented, more realistic exercise.”