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LAUNCH SEQUENCE: 1SQN
aviation technician CPL Peter Lonnie prepares comms before launching
an F-111 during Exercise Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base in
Nevada.
Photos by SGT Rod Skilton |
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FAST FUN: OC 81WG
GPCAPT Mel Hupfeld (rear seat) and SQNLDR Steve Chappell, a
RAAF pilot on exchange with the USAF, prepare to take a flight
in a US F-15 during Exercise Red Flag.
Photos by SGT Rod Skilton |
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OPEN WIDE: LAC Jamey
Hudson from 1ATS helps load 36SQN’s C-17 at RAAF Base Amberley
in preparation for its departure to Nevada.
Photo by LACW Melina Mancuso |
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| CHECK MATE: 1SQN’s
CPL Jason MacGregor conducts after-flight checks on an F-111
after its arrival from Amberley for Exercise Red Flag. |
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| PATIENCE: 1SQN’s
CPL Andrew Howard waits for the launch of an F-111 at Nellis
Air Force Base. |
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| LOOKING GOOD: 37SQN
flight engineer SGT Grant Lamb checks the tail of a C-130H before
its first mission. |
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Speed Racers
Our fast-jets take to the Nevada skies in the biggest Exercise Red
Flag ever held
If one word described the pace of Exercise Red Flag, it was ‘hectic’.
No matter where you looked, there was plenty of activity around and above
Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, USA.
The annual fast-jet exercise, which ran from February 5-18, involved six
F-111s from 1SQN, two C-130s from 37SQN and more than 250 personnel from
Air Lift Group. 36SQN’s C-17 also participated by delivering equipment
to support the Aussie contingent.
The sky was continually painted with the vapour trails of jets. On the
ground, man and machine worked symbiotically at a furious pace.
There was a hint of what was in store when you saw the three boxes of
mobile phones left, for security, at the front counter of the Exercise
Red Flag building – a permanent facility dedicated to the rolling
exercise.
Inside, continual waves of aircrew swept the corridors at a fast pace
on their way to or from briefings. Every room was crammed with personnel
from the US, Australia and UK. People huddled over computers and maps,
locked in concentrated conversation. This was no place for interruptions.
If things seemed a little tighter than you’d expect, it’s because
this was the largest-ever Exercise Red Flag conducted. This ‘Flag’,
more precisely titled Red Flag 07, drew together more than 1800 air and
ground crew from the participating nations.
Those 1800 swelled the population of Nellis, home of the jet fighter pilot
and the USAF’s Thunderbirds air demonstration squadron, to just over
12,000 people.
Nellis is really a mini city, with all the facilities (and more) of most
medium-sized Australian towns. You name it, Nellis has it – cinema,
Olympic pool, sports centre, theatre, bowling alley and three shopping
locations. The main shopping area, the Base Exchange known as the BX,
is a mall, with food court, speciality shops and the main store, where
you can buy everything from laptops to wine and furniture.
In many ways, the exercise reflected the pace of nearby Las Vegas, where
everything is big and the pace frenetic.
While the four hours of flying times (day and night) were pretty much
set in concrete each day, the scenarios changed.
Ground crews arrived around two hours before flight times and got straight
into preparing the aircraft for the day’s activities. The C-130s
flew around 10am, and the F-111s at 11:45am.
The precision in coordinating such a massive effort was evident from day
one. Even with more than 150 aircraft movements an hour, the F-111s departed
within 10 minutes of their scheduled time.
For the Australians, this was the opportunity to exercise in one of the
most challenging tactical environments. And it wasn’t only the F-111s
that got to experience the high-adrenalin atmosphere.
The C-130s were also able to practise operating in a high-speed, high-risk
battlespace.
As one Hercules pilot said: “It’s very difficult to get the
time or resources to practise being shot at by enemy aircraft. These days
we are so busy with real-time tasking that coordinating our planes and
the F/A-18s from RAAF Base Williamtown is difficult.
“To come here and work under this type of stress (everyone averages
12-hour days) is something we all appreciate and will learn from.”
Hercs hefty asset
While only taking two aircraft to this year’s Exercise Red Flag,
37SQN played an integral role in the exercise.
Apart from gaining some valuable training under extremely demanding conditions,
the squadron’s C-130Hs contributed to the special operations component
that the Coalition required in some situations.
“Depending on the operation, we may be the high-value asset required
to achieve the mission,” said 37SQN CO WGCDR Paul Nicholas.
While it might seem the aircraft could be going in a little cold, this
was not the case.
“At home in Exercise Pitch Black we operate with and against fighter
jets. It’s just that there’s not so many of them. And, of course,
we don’t get to do it that often,” he said.
“Because of the part we are playing in overseas operations, we haven’t
done an Exercise Red Flag for a couple of years.
“Additionally, we have three new special operations captains, so
for them it’s a great consolidation to their training. In two weeks
they will get experience that would take us years to provide.
“Primarily we operate alone, where there are few aircraft, and practise
our threat evasion tactics. But our main priority is to avoid trouble.
We have to go around things.
“So for us, threat avoidance is a priority. However, Exercise Red
Flag offered us the opportunity to train for specific and unique threats.
“It has certainly tested our high-end capability, particularly with
regard to doing air drops, which we did with the Red Horse, a group of
US airborne engineers.”
GPCAPT Mel Hupfeld, the Australian component joint exercise co-ordinator,
summed it up at the initial briefing for the Aussies. “The main aim
is to be better than when we started,” he said. “It’s simply
about how we can get things done efficiently and effectively.”
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