Red Flag 22-3 includes F-22/-35 Red Air and triples the size of airspace

The latest, and last Red Flag for 2022 (Red Flag 22-3) includes F-22 and F-35s being used as Aggressor aircraft flying on the Red Air side. To truly incorporate stealth aircraft into the OPFOR, the size of the airspace had to be increased to allow for longer range threats and attacks. So Nellis worked with the FAA to add air corridors connecting the Nevada Test and Training Range, where Red Flag normally takes place, the Utah Test and Training Range, and the R-2508 Complex in California, which includes Panamint, Saline, Owens, and Isabella. This increased the available airspace by three times its normal size. That gives them almost 36,000 square miles of airspace to use. With just the NTTR, they would only have 12,000 square miles for in flight refueling, air to ground, air to air and all their activities. With the addition of Fifth Generation Red Air, that would push them together closer than they should be for true fifth gen and counter fifth gen tactics development. Eventually Nellis wants to connect all the ranges on the West Coast through air corridors.

“As our adversary capabilities have advanced with respect to both aircraft and longer-range weapons, the size of the Nevada Test and Training Range has become one of the biggest limiting factors to accurate training,” said Brown. “The air bridges between the NTTR, the UTTR, and R-2508 in California enable Red Flag to present Blue forces the necessary range and time to accurately train against our adversary's most advanced capabilities.”

“In the past, Red Flag has only flown in the NTTR with their assets,” said Mr. Richard Johnston, 57th Operations Support Squadron chief of airspace management.

Although this is the first time Red Flag is using the airspace expansion, the partnership with the FAA to expand the training area is not new. Johnston said the FAA understands the military’s needs. When it comes to the testing and fielding of fifth-generation and soon-to-be sixth-generation aircraft, more airspace will be needed to operate and optimize their systems in an environment as close to what warfighters would see in conflict.

www.nellis.af.mil...

a reply to: Zaphod58

I love reading all of your posts, Zaphod58. Thanks for them.

For your OP, here’s a few takeaways/places my mind goes, for me:

- The “red team” using 5th gen may not be so we can “defend” against them. Rather, see how our “soon-to-be-6th gen” does against multiple 5th gen airframes. Testing.
- We view 5th gen as already one behind for us, but one ahead of them. Training the “red team” when you have a “sixth-gen-team” to put them up against is probably better than training against your most advanced, current-state adversaries.
- Something up there must cover an incredible amount of ground at top speed - and needs a lot of real estate to do it.
- Attack and defense at long range is becoming even more important.
- This might kind of explain the lack of enthusiasm around the F22 in terms of funding. If 6th gen(ish) exists, and we’re training with it, the F35 is the plane to keep as the F22 is now unnecessary and expensive. If that’s true, may it RIP with the F14.

Probably off target, but fun to thing about it.

a reply to: VulcanWerks

Fifth Gen is designed to kill opponents before they can be seen, at long range. There currently are no equivalent Fifth Generation fighters in the world, outside of US built aircraft (F-35) operated by our allies. China has the J-20 operational (note that operational doesn't necessarily mean effective), and Russia has the Su-57. China also has the FC-31/J-35 carrier based fighter in testing. It's for the Type 003 carrier, which is a CATOBAR carrier. But by using the F-35, and F-22, and developing counter tactics against their level of stealth, we'll have tactics and technology that can counter both the J-20 and Su-57. Both aircraft are actually considered somewhere between 4.5 and 5th Generation, but not true Fifth Generation.

The J-20 has apparently been set up to work with the J-15 in a hunter/killer role, with the J-15 being armed with a VLRAAM missile. They'll be working against our tankers, AWACS, and support aircraft. By expanding the ranges they will allow a similar simulated attack setup using F-35s and F-16s or something similar. And it lets them try different countering tactics, and technologies.

Red Flag is designed to simulate the first ten missions of combat, and is set up to be harder than actual combat. Pilots going through Red Flag, then going into combat, have said that Red Flag is even harder. By adding Fifth Generation fighters into the Red Air mix, they're making it that much harder, even for F-22 pilots. That makes it more realistic for them, as they're flying in full up stealth mode, without their Luneburg Lenses attached, and they can use the tactics they'll use in real combat over the ranges.

The Sixth Generation aircraft (NGAD) just entered the Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase. They've flown a demonstrator, but they haven't reached the point they'd be flying with Nellis aircraft yet. It will probably be a few years before they get to that point. They are flying technology from NGAD on F-22s, and F/A-XX, which is the F-18 replacement Sixth Generation aircraft, on the F-35C. I've got pictures of two of the F-22s from Nellis flying in the last Red Flag, and the F-35C from VFA-147 from this Red Flag. The latest F-35C appears to be a combat ready coating, as opposed to the others, which appear to be testing coatings.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Lots of great info there. This type of training is why our pilots are so good. When I was stationed at Lakenheath in the mid 00s, we were flying 80-100 training sorties per day sometimes. A British pilot at RAF Luechers told me, when we were there for an exercise, he wished he could fly as often as his American counterparts did. When you're only in your plane a few times a month or even less for some air forces, it never really becomes second nature. For American pilots, flying is like driving a car, in the respect that they're so used to it its almost automatic. That was how he explained it anyway.