combat aircraft

T

HE ROYAL CANADIAN Air

Force recently hosted its 51st

Exercise ‘Maple Flag’ at CFB

Cold Lake, but it was a low-

key a air. Instead of the usual

six-week, three-period event,

which has in recent years been cut down

to a four-week, two-period exercise, this

year it was abbreviated to a single two-

week period, which ran from June 11-22.

This didn’t impact the level of

participation. It took in US Navy EA-18G

Growlers from VAQ-134 ‘Garudas’, Royal

Australian Air Force F/A-18As from No

75 Squadron (the RAAF last joined a

‘Maple Flag’ in 2001), and Belgian Air

Component F-16AMs, plus 69th BS

B-52Hs operating from their home base.

The typical annual visitors included a

NATO E-3A AWACS, Canadian CF-188s

from 401 and 409 Squadrons, and Top

Aces’ Alpha Jets providing the ‘Red

Air’ component complete with 414

Squadron electronic warfare o cers

riding in the back seat.

The vast range complex at Cold Lake

is a massive draw for ‘Maple Flag’. The

smallest sub-range is the Cold Lake Air

Weapons Range (CLAWR) at 1.17 million

hectares. It’s an unmatched area in

which the exercise can focus on large

force employment (LFE) missions,  own

against ground targets and having to

deal with aggressors as well as an array

of ground threats.

With the NATO and US shifting towards

training for high-end, near-peer,

con icts, ‘Maple Flag’, with its forested

terrain and vast quantities of airspace,

looks set to rise in popularity over the

coming years thanks to the realism

o ered here.

The latest edition of

Canada’s Exercise

‘Maple Flag’ was a

somewhat shorter

event, but it still

attracted some

signifi cant international

participation.

REPORT AND PHOTOS

Dean Sorochan

Below: US Navy

EA-18G Growlers

made their ‘Maple

Flag’ debut in

June. Here, BuNo

168770/NL-531

from VAQ-134

‘Garudas’ blasts

off for the morning

mission.

Bottom: Displaying

a varied selection

of camoufl age

patterns, Top

Aces Alpha Jets

C-FOTA, C-GNTA

and C-GUTO line

up to take-off for

a morning ‘Maple

Flag’ launch.

EXERCISE REPORT // ‘MAPLE FLAG’

24 October 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net