Library Reference Number: 247
Viva Las Vegas
Since the late 1970s, the RAF has been sending crews out to the Nevada desert to participate in what has now become arguably the biggest and most realistic training exercise in the world: RED FLAG. At the beginning of the year, I was fortunate enough to be deployed on my first Nevada-based exercise of this type.
RED FLAG has its origins in the poor performance of US crews flying air combat manoeuvring during the Vietnam War. It was decided to try and expose crews to realistic scenarios to have them better prepared for their deployment to combat operations. It subsequently proved to be such a success that it continued even after the Vietnam War had finished. It was accepted that crews struggled with the first 10 combat operations they flew, and if these could somehow be replicated, then the chances of surviving beyond these first 10 grew dramatically.
The fact that RED FLAG is flown from Nellis AFB, on the outskirts of Las Vegas, has of course nothing to do with its appeal! The Nevada Range the exercise is flown in is a massive area, and equates to about half the size of Switzerland apparently.
30 other nations have participated in the exercise in the past, but on this particular occasion it would be just the US, UK and Australia. The UK sent over Typhoons, Tornado GR4s and the E-3D Sentry, the Aussies some F-18s and their relatively new E-7A Wedgetail, whilst aircraft from all 4 US Services were there, including F-22 Raptor, B-2 Spirit stealth-bomber, F-16s, EF-18Gs plus a myriad of tankers and "ISR" assets. ISR stands for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and essentially means those assets whose primary task is the collection and dissemination of electronic data. Assets involved then include the E-3C, the RC-135 Rivet Joint, the E-8 JSTARS, the EC-130, the U-2 and the MC-12, plus some UAVs. All told then there was about 70-80 aircraft involved in a single mission.
These coordinated serials are known as Large Force Employment (LFEs) and involve the use of composite air operations (COMAOs), such that a concentration of force achieves military surprise and the desired degree of control of the air to operate relatively unimpeded. Current doctrine also sees the integration of cyber and space effects into a single purpose to overwhelm the enemy.
The enemy always gets a vote though, and at RED FLAG this is most certainly the case: anything that can be denied to friendly forces is, whether it be GPS for navigation or bomb-dropping purposes, IT facilities during mission planning, comms jamming of the in-use frequencies, radar jamming of both fighters and the E-3, plus then the ever present red air. Even these aircraft, colloquially known as 'aggressors' are trained to likely foe standards and have aircraft painted in similar camouflage patterns to those normally only seen in intelligence pictures and comprise F-16s and F-15s.
Friendly forces come together the day prior under the authority of a mission commander, who can be anyone from the LFE, who is given higher authority direction and guidance as to his task. Working for him will be several different package commanders, who are responsible for their own specialist areas. Each package commander will have different requirements, whether it be the counter air commander who wants striker compression to minimise vulnerability time, whilst the strike commander wants a long strike train to allow for target deconfliction and re-attack windows. It is then up to the mission commander to decide which tactic will prevail and thus the COMAO is built. The planning process culminates in a mission mass brief just prior to the execute, which may be the first time that formation members see the overall mission gameplan and tactic. Each formation will then separate and take the time to brief their own tasks in detail so everyone knows what is expected of them.
The job of an E-3 then is to coordinate all of these activities, keep 100% force accountability of all friendly forces whilst at the same time keeping them appraised of their nearest threats through the production of a recognised air picture, making sure that the higher headquarters are aware of task progression and accomplishment, and honouring specific contracts made during planning. Sounds easy, right? From take-off to landing, only 3-4 hours may have passed and for the majority of the time there has been something that needs priority action, whether it be dealing with a late-comer, reallocating targets, reacting to threats or safe sequencing on the egress on behalf of air traffic. The E-3 is often the last player to land. Whilst not the hooting and roaring around I used to do in a fast jet, in can be as physically tiring and more mentally draining.
All this training is for nought though if it is not debriefed so that lessons can be identified and built upon during the next mission iteration. It can be anything from planning points, mission execution or tactical validation that gets analysed. Each player carries some form of GPS tracker, and this is collectively captured such that a playback of the mission can be conducted, including the voice comms on the radio- there is no place to hide in the debrief as everyone can hear and see any errors! With the benefit of hindsight, some decisions made are good, others not so, but everybody is there to learn. From an E-3 perspective, it is often assumed that we have 100% of the situational awareness 100% of the time; alas this is not always the case as we have to train and work-up to this level of intensity just as much as individuals in their own cockpits. The result is that often it is a breakdown in communication that results in errors of execution, and as practitioners of airborne command & control, the E-3 has many fingers in many pies, and the buck stops with us. There can be mitigation in place though through alibis, and the whole point is to challenge and learn. If it was that easy, anybody could be aircrew!
Red flag lasts for 3 weeks, and sorties are flown both day and night. Out of 15 missions planned, we flew 14, which is not that bad a strike rate for an airliner designed in the 60s and that has been in RAF service for over 21 years. Our performance certainly improved over the course of the exercise, and is but a building block for next year's participation. Of course, Las Vegas will continue to have its appeal as well!