"Norman Graf spoke with aircrew from the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings about participation of the F-35A in Exercise Red Flag for the first time.
The overall goals of Red Flag remain the same from exercise to exercise, but the individual mission sets are tailored to the specific squadrons and allied air forces participating. In terms of coalition partners, Australia, the UK and the United States are about as close as they come, so the first Flag of each year features these players and is normally at a correspondingly higher level of intensity. This year was no exception, as the US Air Force debuted the latest addition to its aerial inventory, the F-35A Lightning II.
The US Air Force declared initial operational capability (IOC) for the F-35A in August, 2016; Red Flag 17-1 was the type’s first large force exercise since IOC. Commander of the 34th Fighter Squadron, Lt Col George Watkins said: “It is exciting to integrate the newest operational fighter squadron and the F-35A with all the other experienced aircrew, including two of our partner nations. The professional aggressors [based at Nellis] are providing great training, but [they are] no match for our integrated fourth and fifth-generation air force.” While exercises in the past few years have expanded in scope and have been embedded in larger scenarios involving off-site and even virtual players, this year’s Red Flag concentrated more on the tactical issues of integration and interoperability of fourth and fifth-generation fighters. Mission scenarios included defensive counter-air (defending airspace against the Red Air force), air interdiction (AI, striking targets deep in enemy territory) and dynamic targeting (trying to find targets on the fly detecting threats and finding those on the ground and trying to hit those targets). As the most modern fighter in the US Air Force inventory, possessing capabilities to gather, fuse and share sensor data, coupled with its stealth technology and offensive weapons capabilities, the multi-role F-35A was at the centre of the action....
...Commander of the 419th Operations Group, Detachment 1, Lt Col Dave DeAngelis and one of the reserve pilots said Red Flag offers intensive training and is a tremendous learning experience. He said: “The aggressor pilots are among the best of the best and spend their days learning the tactics of enemy air forces, so it de finitely puts us to the test.” Just one week into the exercise, the first ten-aircraft sortie was launched, followed in the late afternoon by an eight-ship launch.
Lt Col Watkins highlighted how four of his squadron pilots, who previously flew F-15s and F-16s at Red Flag for years, had expressed their satisfaction with the F-35A. The squadron commander quoted them as saying, ‘This is amazing. I’ve never had this much situational awareness while airborne. I know who’s who, I know who’s being threatened, and I know where I need to go next.’ Watkins said “You just don’t have all of that information at once in fourth-generation platforms. On the first day we flew defensive counter-air and we didn’t lose a single friendly aircraft. That’s unheard of. It feels like air dominance.”
Red Air
One of the more demanding tasks for the Red Air force was to make this exercise challenging for the combined Blue Air force comprising fourth and fifth-generation fighters.
Major Mark Klein, an Air Force Reserve Command pilot who flies with the 64th Aggressor Squadron said: “We focus on adversary tactics all the time, so we are subject matter experts on how enemy aircraft operate and perform. Then we replicate that here [at Red Flag].”
Civilian contractor pilots from Draken International flying A-4 Skyhawks augmented the F-16s of the Nellis-based 64th Aggressor Squadron. Additionally, F-16Cs from the 115th Fighter Wing, Wisconsin Air National Guard and F-15Cs from the 125th Fighter Wing, Florida Air National Guard, and Block 50 F-16Cs assigned to the 77th Fighter Squadron from Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina rotated on to the Red Air team to increase the number of aggressor aircraft needed to assure a robust threat laydown. On average 20 to 24 Red Air aircraft flew each day, including regeneration (a process allowing aggressor aircraft that have been shot down to rejoin the fight), so the Blue Air force would face three or four times that number.
Lt Col Watkins said: “They have ramped up the level of the threat. They’ve stepped it up with the number of Red Air aircraft fighting against us. The amount of jamming, the skill level of the adversaries and the surface-to-air missile threat have signi cantly increased from when I was here last flying the F-16. There’s always a change in the threat. We’re continuing to build new systems and get more capable [but] the adversary threats are also becoming more capable, so there’s always a stair step approach. But there’s a marked difference in this Flag from the ones I’ve experienced in the past. I believe that’s because of integration of the F-22, F-35 and all the fourth-generation players. We’re able to bring that all together for this fight. It’s needed to challenge all of us as we’re fighting together.”...
...Whereas in previous Flags there might have been one or two advanced surface-to-air missile threats to counter, this year’s event featured a more complex integrated air defence system. Fourth-generation aircraft would have had to concentrate exclusively on eliminating the threats from a distance, launching many stand-off weapons, including calling in Tomahawk cruise missiles for fixed sites.
Lt Col Watkins explained how this has been ramped up. “In this Red Flag we’ve seen four advanced SAMs in one scenario, and we don’t necessarily know where they are. We can’t simulate hitting them with standoff weapons before the vul time [the time period a flight plans to be on station] even starts, so we’re using an integrated cross-domain approach to find them. We’re using information supplied by cyber and space assets, Rivet Joint and Wedgetail, and we’re fusing all information together to find the target location. Between the Block 50 F-16s and the F-35s we’re locating the threats and are able to use the F-22’s standoff capability and the stealth capability of the F-35 to get close enough to the target locations where we can drop on them. Even in a Block 50 F-16 it would be impossible to target the missile system, because it would be too dangerous to get that close.”
Lt Col DeAngelis echoed that sentiment: “We’re able to use our sensors to find the location and use our synthetic aperture radar mode to map the general area and determine where the surface-to-air missile site is. We carry two internal GBU-31(V)3 JDAMs, so we’re able to put a 2,000lb bomb on the threat. As a former F-16 pilot, we used to shoot HARMs [AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles], which have much smaller warheads and are not as capable. With the F-35 we’re able to find the site and put a 2,000lb bomb on it, which is much more effective against an integrated air defence system.”...
...Brits
The Royal Air Force deployed eight Typhoons to Nellis and flew two waves of six aircraft each day. Of ficer Commanding No.6 Squadron, Wing Commander Billy Cooper said the majority of Typhoons tasking was air-to-air fighting. He said: “As a swing role platform, we carried bombs on some of the missions. Some of the time we’ve been using the F-35 to find some of the integrated air defence systems and on occasion the Typhoon dropped bombs on the targets located, but lots of the time we were out at the front of the package, providing air cover. Quite often the F-35 provided some of the Link 16 picture that we were able to use to generate situational awareness.”
Interest in working closely with the F-35A during Red Flag 17-1 was understandably high within the RAF contingent, as the UK is due to introduce the F-35B into service in the coming years. Once in service, the UK will have a fourth/ fifth-generation mix of Typhoon and F-35B. Experience gained from exercises such as Red Flag 17-1 is critical to gain experience and develop tactics and operating procedures for effective future operations...."