40 YEARS OF RED FLAG
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RED FLAG is a realistic combat training exercise involving the air, space, and cyber forces of the United States and its allies. The exercise is hosted north of Las Vegas on the Nevada Test and Training Range -- the U.S. Air Force's premier military training area with more than 15,000 square miles of airspace and 2.9 million acres of land. With 1,900 possible targets, realistic threat systems and an opposing enemy force that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world, Nellis AFB and the NTTR are the home of a simulated battlefield, providing combat air forces with the ability to train to fight together in a peacetime environment, and to survive and win together.
The 414th Combat Training Squadron is responsible for executing Red Flag. The exercise is one out of a series of advanced training programs administered at Nellis AFB and on the NTTR by organizations assigned to the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center.
More than 125 aircraft participated in Red Flag 15-1 including aircraft from the RAF and Australia. During Red Flag, mission aircraft may remain in the air for up to five hours as the exercise is designed to provide Red Flag participants with valuable training in planning and executing a wide-variety of combat missions.
During the Vietnam War, the USAF's kill-loss ratio fell to 2:1. For the Air Force establishment, this was unacceptable. For comparison, the kill-loss ratio in the skies above Korea was 10:1 and in some periods of that conflict, 25:1. Enter the "Fighter Mafia," the best and brightest fighter pilots in the Air Force whose mission it was to figure out why.
After much hard work and analysis, it was determined that a severe lack of experience was resulting in the appalling losses. The solution - RED FLAG. Up until Red Flag, air crews would practice against colleagues flying the same aircraft. Red Flag introduced the concept of dissimilar air combat training.
The first Red Flag was 75-1 commencing on July 15, 1975. Over the ensuing 40 years, Red Flag has come to include all four branches of the US military and personnel and aircraft from 28 partner nations have participated.
As the threat environment has evolved and become more complex, Nellis and Red Flag have adopted and grown to meet the challenge...today, for the next 40 years, and beyond.
F-16C of the South Dakota ANG, 114th Fighter Wing, 175th Fighter Squadron.
USAF HH-60G Pave Hawk.