Red Flag adds 3rd week for more CAS practice

[unhappycamper]

About 100 aircraft will participate in the expanded three-week Red Flag, up from about 70.


Red Flag adds 3rd week for more CAS practice
By Erik Holmes - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 13, 2009 16:17:12 EST

The Red Flag aerial combat exercise that begins in late February at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., will expand from two to three weeks 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 would likely 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 extra week was prompted by two training needs identified by Air Combat Command’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.

The exercise will expand from an average of about 70 participating aircraft to more than 100, Johnson said.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/01/airforce_redflag_expanded_011309/%2e