Highlights of the Red Flag 07-2 Military Exercise

Although the United States air force achieved a roughly 10-to-1 kill ratio over communist forces during the Korean war, by the time of the Vietnam war the ratio had fallen to about 2-to-1, and for a period during 1972 it fell to 1-to-1.   An air force analysis determined that pilots who survived their first ten combat sorties would likely survive the remainder of their tour, so the air force set up the Red Flag military exercise to provide a very realistic simulation of combat conditions.

The 64th aggressor squadron provides a more powerful red team capability, flying F-15 Eagles to simulate Russian aircraft like the Sukhoi Su-27 "Flanker".   The air force puts its best pilots into the aggressor aircraft, teaching them to fly using Soviet military tactics.  Aircrews who want to have close contact with Soviet aircraft can also drop into the Nellis air force base Threat Training Facility, sometimes referred to as the "petting zoo", to see the real thing at close range.

The F-15s used to be top of the heap in the air force, but that position now belongs to this aircraft, the F-22 Raptor.   Although they've been around for some time, this is the first Red Flag exercise where they've been deployed.   Since they represent such a leap in capability beyond existing aircraft, it's been difficult to know how to integrate them into Red Flag, since any aircraft it's deployed against will likely be shot down before it's even aware of the Raptor's presence, which doesn't provide very good training for its opponents!   You can see more of this aircraft type by looking at the 2005 Edwards airshow F-22 demonstration.

The Nighthawk will soon be retired, replaced by the Raptor, so this is one of its last outings at Red Flag.   The F-22 can only carry two 1000 pound bombs internally, against the two 2000 pound bombs of the F-117, but the air force feels that the change is justified by the huge cost of keeping even a small fleet of the single-purpose Nighthawk, compared to keeping a fleet of dual-purpose Raptors.

Although there were four B-2s present, only one at a time flew during the media days.   And since there are so many excellent aircraft to put on this page, you'll have to go to look at the 2005 Edwards airshow B-2 demonstration if you want another fix of this amazing aircraft.

Although all of these previous aircraft are interesting, I was especially pleased to see this EA-6B Prowler in action.   I've seen all of the other aircraft types flying during airshow many times, but the Prowler belongs to that group of "unsexy" military aircraft which is virtually never seen in the air at shows, and it doesn't even appear in the static display very often.   Although it's a navy aircraft, the Prowler is an indispensable part of air force exercises like Red Flag, since it's the only dedicated radar jamming and radar attack aircraft in the arsenal, now that the air force has retired the F-4 Wild Weasel and EF-111 Raven.

This E-3 Sentry AWACS plane is another part of the electronic umbrella which supports and protects the fighter, ground attack and bomber assets.   Use of all of these aircraft types adds significantly to the realism of the exercises, which is vital if they are to achieve their goal of preparing aircrews for real-world combat.   The AWACS planes also monitor the blue and red teams to determine their location and who is downing who.

As in previous years, the main component of the British team consisted of the Tornado fighter-bomber.   In British service, the Tornado comes in two flavors, the Air Defence Variant (ADV) and the Interdictor/Strike (IDS) type which came to this Red Flag.   Here you can see a Tornado taking off with the blue afterburner flame which is typical of this aircraft type.   The British bring along their own concrete-filled practice bombs for use on the test range, you can see a couple of them hanging under the fuselage.

The Tornado is a swing-wing design, and the outer wing pylons cleverly swivel in order to keep their load pointing straight ahead.   In this case a "Sky Shadow" ECM pod is on the port pylon, and a dispenser for chaff and flares on the starboard outer pylon.   The thin, sharply pointed unit inboard of the starboard fuel tank is a transponder used to track the various aircraft participating in the exercise, which is why you'll see it fitted to several of the aircraft types.

Like the Tornado, the Aardvark is a swing-wing design, in fact it was the first operational aircraft with this so-called "variable geometry" wing.  This arrangement improves low-speed performance, allowing the plane to fly into and out of shorter runways than would otherwise be possible.

In 1965 the British cancelled the TSR.2 in favor of the F-111, and the Australians also transferred their support from the TSR.2 to the American plane, however the Aardvark ran far over the promised schedules and costs, so the British cancelled their order.   The Australians eventually received theirs in 1973, six years late and at twice the forecast price.