from a high-end ght to more counter-
insurgency. So we focused, rightly so, on
that. We’ve now come to a point where
we’re again focusing on the high-end,
very advanced ght, including the multi-
domain aspects of that — this is about
cyber and space.’
He detailed some of the recent studies
designed to evaluate and adapt ‘Red Flag’
to current requirements. ‘Is it the high-end
ghting or is it what Col Richard ‘Moody’
Suter’s original vision [of ‘Red Flag’] was; to
give the lieutenants their rst 10 missionsin the war? Post-Vietnam the analysis
said that those who survived their rst 10
missions were likely to survive the entirety
of the [campaign]. We’ve come to a point
where we have to do both. The trade-o
for that was the extension of the last week
to allow for the three-day cycle to get the
lieutenants their rst 10 missions, but do
it in a manner that they can actually y,
come back and decompress, debrief and
then plan for the next mission rather than
just going from event to event, day to day
with no debrief.’Wing was the lead unit for this iteration,
with Col Richard Dickens — the 4th
Operations Group commander — acting
as the exercise’s Air Expeditionary Wing
boss. ‘The opportunity to come to ‘Red
Flag’ is a unique experience because we
get the more robust and complex threat
that we can face here’, he said. ‘It gives us
more opportunities for folks to go out and
lead an integrated, multi-domain, joint
coalition package and learn from that.’
Previously, mission planning was carried
out the day prior to a VUL (vulnerability
period, essentially a mission) and
participants in that day’s action would
debrief immediately. During this exercise
the three components were spread out
over separate days, giving crews time for
intensive debriefs after a period of rest.
NTTR commander Col Chris Zuhlke
said exercise commanders had done
‘a bit of soul-searching’ over the past
four-to-six months trying to rede ne
what ‘Red Flag’ is. ‘Over the past 10 years
it has ebbed and owed with our own
training requirements. Con icts in Iraq and
Afghanistan for a while changed the focusAbove: A pair of
‘Red Force’ B-1Bs
returns to Nellis
post-mission
for an overhead
break to land.
Above right:
An RAF Typhoon
FGR4 from No
XI(F) Squadron
touches down
at Nellis at the
culmination of the
afternoon ‘VUL’.66 May 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
EXERCISE REPORT // ‘RED FLAG 18-1’
65-67 Red Flag C.indd 66 20/03/2018 10:59