Red Flag puts RAAF’s 37 and 4 Squadrons to the test

For Red Flag 11-3, ran from February 21 to March 11, as well as the RAAF Blue Force also comprised F-22, F-16, A-10 and RAF Tornado GR.4 fighters, B-2 bombers, EA-18G Growlers, E-3C AWACS, HC-130P CSAR and EC-130 ‘Compass Call’ Hercules variants, RC-135 Rivet Joints, KC-135 tankers, and HH-60 and CH-47 helicopters.

37SQN sent two H models C-130s and four aircrews, plus planning staff and 35 maintenance personnel to Red Flag 11-3, which from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The aircrews comprised two day crews comprising a pilot, co-pilot, navigator/ACO and flight engineer, and two night crews with a second navigator/ACO, and the squadron was scheduled to fly four missions a day, two day and two night flights (a small number of missions were dropped due to crew, weather or maintenance issues).

“We go over there to exercise in what is the world’s best threat simulation airspace, [to test] our tactics against radar and infrared emitters from ground and air based threats,” SQNLDR Jason Baldock, executive officer (C-130H) for 37SQN, explained. “Nellis Air Force Base and the exercise airspace is the best in the world for exercising our tactics against those threat emitters.”

Missions were run on a 24 hour cycle, with Blue Force given its mission objectives the day before the mission, allowing them to plan the mission and submit for approval to Red Flag staff before the mission would be flown the next day. To maximise its training value, 37SQN sent across a dedicated planning and tactics team who would plan missions in partnership with the assigned aircrew plus the other Blue Force elements.

“The missions would basically be a target, whether it would be delivering paratroopers, or land into a dirt airfield to drop off a high value asset or drop off some guys, at the same time there would be striker missions to take out the threats that would be out there, there would be fighter escorts to engage enemy fighters that were part of the exercise, and there would be suppression of air defence by dedicated assets, basically radar jamming and a few other weapons to get that sort of effect,” explained SQNLDR Baldock. “That would all be going on at the same time, so all the Blue Force elements could achieve their objectives.”

For the first time, Red Flag 11-3 also completely integrated non kinetic effects such as the jamming of GPS signals and radio and satellite comms, which forced crews to rely on backup equipment and skills operations.

“They were different effects applied by Red Flag staff to continually complicate and challenge the crews that flew,” noted SQNLDR Baldock.

Other training aspects included practising ‘search and evade’ tactics, where crew from a ‘downed’ aircraft practise avoiding being picked up by enemy ground forces while waiting rescue from CSAR (combat search and rescue) forces, In all Red Flag offers high value training that can’t be replicated in Australia.

“Learning how best to fit into a package where you’ve got a dedicated A-10 escort, fighter escorts above and strikers taking out threats so you can access certain areas while suppressing certain threats for certain amounts of time so you can get in and out to achieve your objectives, that’s the real beauty of Red Flag. That integration with a wider a coalition, mainly the US, is invaluable.”

Meanwhile 4SQN combat controllers returned to Red Flag for the second time.