combat aircraft

Above: The 67th

FS ‘Fighting

Cocks’ F-15Cs are

regular attendees

at ‘Red Flag —

Alaska’.

Below: The ‘Flying

Fiends’ line at

Eielson, including

one F-16 specially

painted to mark

the squadron’s

centenary.

Right: An

evocative shot

from Joint Base

Elmendorf-

Richardson as a

C-17A launches for

a mission during

the exercise.

Below right: Some

of the heavies at

Eielson including

the NATO E-3A

AWACS.

This particular iteration of the exercise

brought together the US Air Force, US

Navy and US Army along with Israeli

Air Force assets and the NATO Airborne

Early Warning Force. The participants

operated from three different bases,

with visiting fighters at Eielson AFB,

cargo and air support aircraft at Joint

Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER,

known as ‘J-bear’) and army assets at

nearby Fort Wainwright.

Keeping it real

Capt Loren Keisling draws on his

experience from Tinker AFB, Oklahoma,

in his new role with the 353rd Combat

Training Squadron (CTS) as a chief of

battle management. ‘It’s important

for us to have joint missions’, he says,

‘to be able to understand how the

preparation process of our sister services

is being handled, and to figure out

what they need from us for planning

and execution. That kind of mutual

understanding will help us to help each

other in a real-world situation.’

One of the key objectives of ‘Red

Flag — Alaska’ is to ensure aircrews

survive their first 10 combat sorties. This

is achieved through having the crews

train against advanced air and ground

threats in counter-air, suppression of

enemy air defenses (SEAD), dynamic

targeting, air interdiction and high-value

asset assistance. ‘These missions are

all executed in a contested, degraded

environment,’ explains Keisling. ‘We are

using a graduated approach. As the

pilots are getting better, the missions

become harder.’

As usual, the bad guys — ‘Red Air’ —

were led by the resident 18th AGRS F-16C/

Ds and their subject matter expert pilots.

The ‘Reds’ were supplemented by visiting

crews who crossed over to the ‘dark side’

as and when required in order to present a

more complex threat scenario. In addition,

army special operators from the 18th Field

Artillery Brigade were at the heart of the

action. For the first time in ‘Red Flag —

Alaska’ a joint capability was on display

when this unit completed a high-mobility

artillery rocket system rapid infiltration

(HIRAIN) mission. This took place twice

during the exercise, once a week. It saw

two M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket

Systems (HIMARS) being flown by C-17A

to Fort Greely, where they were unloaded

and driven to a firing location, all the

while co-ordinated with the exercise’s

flying assets.

Israeli tankers

The Israeli Air Force marked another first

with its debut on ‘Red Flag — Alaska’.

Original plans called for Israel to have

500 personnel on base at Eielson plus

around 20 aircraft from three Israeli Eagle

squadrons. However, amid tensions

back home surrounding Iran and Syria,

the Israeli Air Command decided to

keep the F-15s in Israel, dispatching only

EXERCISE REPORT // ‘RED FLAG — ALASKA’

26 September 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

24-30 Red Flag Alaska C.indd 26 19/07/2018 12:25