Courtesy Photo | A NATO AWACS taxis down the runway at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The E-3A Component...... read more read more
By Chief Master Sgt. Michael Moeller
LAS VEGAS - The NATO E-3A Component participated with significant success in Exercise Red Flag 15-2 from Feb. 27 to March 17, 2015, at Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, Nevada.
The component deployed two aircraft and component members from 11 component nations including all personnel necessary to operate and support two aircraft in flying successful missions. The deployment was organized in combination with the components exercise “Magic Viking” followed by a real deployment to the southwestern U.S.
In total, more than 2,500 participants and more than 100 aircraft from 13 different U.S. Air Force squadrons; C-130Js and F-16s from the Royal Norwegian Air Force; E-3 Sentry’s of the US Air Force and E-3As from NATO were involved. The exercise provided the crews and pilots, in one of the air forces premier air-to air combat exercises, the opportunity to enhance their skills and experiences.
For the first time ever, crew members from Romania took actively part in a Red Flag exercise.
Capt. Bogdan Drelciuc, the Romanian senior national representative mentioned, “Eugene and I are the first Romanians ever actively participating in a Red Flag! It was really challenging but I think, both of us managed to be at least at the level of expectations. Eugene was awarded as ‘Superior Performer’ and I received good feedback for my performance. In my opinion, during the entire exercise, I had never the feeling that we were representing any other flag than the NATO flag and we did it well!”
The exercise is an advanced training program administered at Nellis AFB and on the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) by organizations assigned to the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center.
Red Flag is a realistic combat training exercise involving air-, space-, and cyber forces of the United States and its allies. It is hosted north of Las Vegas, at 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.
More than 100 aircraft took off from Nellis AFB and several other U.S. air bases to support and provide Red Flag participants with valuable training in planning and executing a wide-variety of combat missions.
Additionally, for the first time during a Red Flag exercise, hundreds of virtual participants in simulators at their home stations or in simulators at the Distributed Mission Operations Center in New Mexico, participated in taking down enemy Forces by providing ground surveillance to support attack operations and targeting to delay, disrupt and ultimately destroy the opposition.
“During the actual flying, a rich cocktail of all the available capabilities was served in a compressed execution window, requiring everyone’s full attention and the professional dedication of our E-3A crew members paid off. At the completion of Red Flag 15-2, we succeeded to meet the ultimate objective of the mission commander, “to be awesome”” said Maj. Kris Luyckx, tactical director.
The great success of flying all scheduled missions is a result of all participants as well as the great professionalism of the component's logistics and maintenance team. This success would not have been possible to achieve without their contribution and dedication to the mission.
“We were told during our in-brief, that this training was ‘second to none’. Red Flag 15-2 lived up to that claim. The schedule was demanding, the missions were challenging and the debriefings provided crews with honest feedback, that they were able to use to improve their planning and performance in the next mission. The experience our crews gained here is invaluable,” said Maj. Jeff Cranford, deployment commander.
This year also marks the 40th anniversary of Red Flag. In early 1975 it was proposed to develop an exercise that would pit student Forces against dedicated aggressor piloted Forces in a series of combat scenarios over the vast Nellis Range in Nevada. Final orders to conduct Red Flag were given in July 1975, and in December 1975, a squadron of F-4 Phantoms were the first aircraft arriving for this kind of exercise. Since then, Red Flag expanded in the following years. Simulated electronic threats like jammers, simulated surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery guns got more and more involved. Attack packages became more complex and airframes from all services including 28 partner nations units from around the world got involved and participated in the exercise.
Red Flag allows participants to be trained on a myriad of aircraft at a very fast pace that they would not get at their home stations. Additionally the cyber and aviation areas are giving participants various opportunities to practice their skills.
Since 1975, Red Flag has provided training for more than 440,000 military personnel, including more than 145,000 aircrew members flying more than 385,000 sorties and logging more than 660,000 hours of flying time.
| Date Taken: | 03.17.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.14.2015 08:05 |
| Story ID: | 159907 |
| Location: | LAS VEGAS, NV, US |
| Web Views: | 111 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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