XBradTC

The relatively poor performance of the USAF and the US Navy in air to air combat in Vietnam led both services to take a close look at their training methods. Famously, the Navy instituted TOPGUN. Somewhat less well known, the Air Force instituted Red Flag.

TOPGUN initially started training selected aircrews from the fleet squadrons in air combat maneuvering, the classic dogfight, from 1v1, up to 4vmany. Once the aircrew graduated from TOPGUN, they returned to their squadron, and became the subject matter experts on ACM, sharing their wisdom among the squadron aircrews.

On the Air Force side, the internal look at training focused somewhat more on a unit level, typically a fighter wing (the classic fighter wing in those days consisted of three squadrons of 24 aircraft each, or 72 jets in a wing). Building on their experience in Vietnam, the Air Force Red Flag scenario would task a fighter wing to conduct both air superiority mission, and attack missions.

The introduction of dedicated Aggressor squadrons, typically mounted in the nimble F-5 Freedom Fighter, provided a very realistic foe. Soon, Red Flag exercises began integrating other air assets such as E-3A AWACS to more realistically portray an air campaign. From the very beginning, the paradigm was to provide aircrews with their “first 10 missions.” The chances of making a fatal mistake were far and away higher during the first 10 missions an aircrew flew in combat. So if you could provide those first 10 in peacetime, it would stand to reason that losses in combat would accordingly be lower.

And thus it has been.

Over the years, each Red Flag has become progressively more complex, with greater numbers of aircraft, types of aircraft, other services and allied nations, simulated ground based air defense, electronic warfare, and often integration with US Army exercises at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA.

Each Red Flag provides both high stress training for aircrews, and operational experience in planning air campaigns for higher level leadership.