Red Flag 2019: U.S. stages first great power air war training exercise test in years

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. – After refueling at night over a southern-Nevada dust bowl called Texas Lake, scores of U.S. and coalition warplanes crossed into contested air space on a mission to suppress state-of-the-art enemy air defenses. Breaking Defense reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

6 March 2019 -- The combat aircraft formation was soon bombarded with warning signals as radars of advanced surface-to-air (SAM) missile batteries with the reach of Russia’s S-300 and S-400 air defense systems switched on.

Electronic jammers struck as fighter pilots tried to communicate with an E-8 Joint STARS command-and-control aircraft; rear-area command cells had satellite linkages disrupted by cyber attacks. Starbursts of surface-to-air missile launches flashed on the ground below, and cockpit alarms warned that the formation was being painted with multiple radars from enemy aircraft with paint schemes and capabilities designed to replicate the likes of the advanced Sukhoi Su-30 Flanker fighters in the arsenals of both Russia and China.

This was the final mission in a three-week Red Flag military exercise, and the Blue Force pilots did not panic when confronted with a coordinated attack by Red Force Aggressor Squadrons operating in all domains – air, ground, space and cyberspace.

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John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics

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