11 December 2020
Force squadrons from Air Combat Group, Air Mobility Group, Surveillance Response Group and Air Warfare Centre have participated in a major virtual exercise.
Exercise Coalition Virtual Flag (CVF21-1) was held between October 26 and November 6 with the United States Air Force, United States Navy, Royal Canadian Forces and the United Kingdom forces.
Exercise Director Wing Commander Michael Tully said the exercise aimed to cultivate international partnerships and enhance interoperability with coalition partner nations.
"CVF21-1 delivered complex training scenarios in a synthetic environment to maximize interoperability, efficiency and effectiveness for Air Force with our international partners during COVID-19 which would otherwise have been impossible to achieve," Wing Commander Tully said.
Coordinated through the Air Warfare Centre's – Distributed Training Centre at RAAF Base Williamtown, CVF21-1 training audiences from Amberley, Edinburgh, Richmond and Williamtown were connected via an integrated simulation network.
No.2 Squadron, at RAAF Base Williamtown, conducted a full range of airborne tactical command and control air battle manager roles in a complex and demanding air, sea and land domain.
"This exercise allowed No.2 Squadron to test and improve integration and operations within a coalition synthetic air warfare environment," Wing Commander Tully said.
"Forty-one Wing, also located at Williamtown, provided tactical command and control in a complex, multi-domain war fighting scenario.
"This exercise was an excellent opportunity to test and refine tactics, techniques and procedures to improve interoperability as well as informing development of the 41 Wing live, virtual and constructive roadmap."
No. 4 Squadron and joint terminal attack controllers participated in their first virtual exercise from Williamtown.
Over in Richmond, No. 37 Squadron conducted rapid airlift of critical force elements into contested and denied environments in the simulated battlespace.
"The aim of 37 Squadron's activities is to validate tactical airlift tactics, techniques and procedures, especially those concerning threat reactions and countermeasures,” Wing Commander Tully said.
"In Amberley, No. 36 Squadron also tested their capability in relation to rapid airlift of critical force elements into contested and denied environments which provided highly valuable training opportunities for a number of crews."
From Edinburgh, the Distributed Ground Station Australia's focus was to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance processing, exploitation and dissemination of fused intelligence information to the other CVF21-1 warfighters.
Air Force has participated in Exercise Coalition Virtual Flag since 2009 and our participation continues to increase in scope each year and contributes to Air Force's international engagement objectives.
