The Aviation Magazine Volume 6, Issue 3, April-May 2015 | Page 68
©Steve Bigg
F‐16Cs of the 158th Fighter Wing, 134th
Fighter Squadron, Burlington, VT ANG aka
“Green Mountain Boys”
explained Captain Brendan "Bloc" Bond, a B‐2 bomber pilot
with the 13th Bomb Squadron from Whiteman Air Force Base.
"For me that's really been eye opening. Other than just drop‐
ping bombs there's a lot of different ways to do things to effect
change as required and I think that's where Red Flag is really
good." He went on to say "Normally, day to day, we're primar‐
ily operating the B‐2, flying missions and doing air to air refuel‐
ling (AAR) but we don't do a lot of integration with assets. Here
at Red Flag we're down the hall from the F‐22's, the AWACS,
working with all the different resources the Air Force and coali‐
tion partners have and that's been a really useful experience."
As the level of sophistication of combat systems increases, Red
Flag organizers ensure the exercise incorporates elements to
challenge all aspects of these systems. The Raptor is a perfect
example. Technical Sergeant Guillermo Salcedo, an F‐22 air‐
craft maintainer supporting the 94th Fighter Squadron, pointed
out that the exercise is constantly improving. "The biggest dif‐
ference I've noticed from the maintenance perspective is the
addition of cyber threats." During Red Flag 15‐1 their reliance
on network connectivity to support their aircraft was chal‐
lenged. "The Raptor for example is very integrated and a lot of
our systems have to be imported over for us to be able to sup‐
port flying and (at Red Flag) they have introduced specific
threats to simulate scenarios in which we won't have specific
things we typically have to work with." The result is that the
maintainers are forced to undertake and develop the kind of
problem solving skills that they will need on operational de‐
ployments. This level of training represents how far the exer‐
cise has evolved from its early days of ACM and SAM threats.
Those who will bear the responsibility of commanding future
real world operations gain experience at Red Flag that can't be
found elsewhere. "The exercise extends beyond the aircraft in
the air and the crews supporting them on the ground." said 1st
Lieutenant Paul Heins. "Red Flag operations are run through a
Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) that commands both
the real world assets at the exercise as well as additional simu‐
lated assets that run in parallel with them in a larger conflict
scenario. Overall the exercise involves the "live fly" that hap‐
pens locally at Nellis, the virtual and the constructive elements
that are all integrated into the CAOC. This area is definitely one
of several that Red Flag have their sights on for further devel‐
opment in order to expand the exercise scope to be able to
provide a training platform that is as realistic and challenging
as possible for not just the pilots and crews that attend but
also for those who are likely to be tasked with commanding
them on coalition operations."