That support comes in the shape of
playing the bad guys, adversaries,
bandits or ‘Red Air’ — it has a number of
popular monikers. With a fleet of
fabulously painted former Swiss Air
Force F-5Ns and a single two-seat
gloss-black F-5F, the ‘Saints’ offer an
affordable way to prepare fleet
squadrons for what they can expect in
contested airspace.
‘We provide over-the-hill support to
the fleet squadrons at Lemoore, which
fly up to the Fallon ranges and we either
lead or plus-up their in-house ‘Red Air’.
They have the fuel to transit here, fight,and transit back, without landing away
from their home field. If we aren’t
supporting pre-deployment air wings,
fleet support is our primary job.’
SFARP is the first stage of pre-
deployment training. The way the Navy
conducts tactical training upholds the
tried and tested crawl, walk, run
approach. ‘They cover the crawl phase in
house at their squadron back at their
home station,’ explains Gottschalk.
‘When they come to SFARP at Fallon it’s
more the walk phase, but SFARP is still
about their in-house tactics. The run is
when they come back here for Air WingUS NAVY & MARINE CORPS AIR POWER YEARBOOK 2018
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