NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. –
The 1st Fighter Wing F-22 Raptors, air crew and support personnel from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, arrived at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, July 10 in support of Red Flag 19-3.
Red Flag is an air combat training exercise that begins July 15, 2019 and will conclude Aug. 2, 2019. The exercise is designed to train units on realistic combat-like situations with U.S. and allied forces in a controlled environment.
“Red Flag began as an air-to-air fight, but it’s evolved into a multi-domain conflict to make sure America’s warfighters from across the services are ready for tomorrow’s fight,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Michael Mathes, 414th Combat Training Squadron commander. “Air, space, cyber and command and control forces come together in our training environment here at Nellis to ensure that when our nation calls, we can meet and beat our adversaries.”
The 1st FW is the exercise's core wing, meaning they not only have to conduct their own air-to-air mission, but they also support all other participating personnel. They do this by lending their expertise and ensuring that participating units have all the necessary resources they need in order to meet the objectives set out by the Red Flag team.
“As the core wing, it's our job to support the mission and all other participating units here at Red Flag,” said Capt. Martin Caluag, Red Flag 19-3 core wing project officer. “Red Flag is the go-to exercise when it comes to developing our combat and war fighting capabilities.”
While the exercise is only three weeks long, the various units attending Red Flag 19-3 will have long mission-filled days and will be looking to the Airmen of the 1st FW to keep operations moving forward.