The latest Red Flag exercise (RF10-3) was the normal two-week affair and took part between 22nd February and 6th March at Nellis AFB. Paul Filmer reports on the highs and lows of shooting this time of year.
The annual International Society of Aviation Photographers (ISAP) symposium was held this year in Las Vegas, NV and as I would be at Nellis for this exercise anyway, it seemed like a good move to spend the week in the desert to catch up and socialise with friends, some I see often and others only every few years, so this would be a good excuse to kill two birds with one stone.
Day one was a little overcast with the trademark white skies making photography semi useless, so the usual terrible threesome of myself Richard and Paul senior decided to do a spot of helicopter hunting. While the rest of the sheeple messed around with grey jets on a white background we had a leisurely lunch and stalked our prey, ending up with some nice dusk shots.
The next day turned out to be fabulous with blue skies coupled with fantastic vantage points. The main attraction at this Flag was the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) with their F/A-18Cs, which had the effect of deflecting everyone's attention from the six F-111s across the border sitting at China Lake, CA. (We found out this nugget of information far too late). 77 Squadron based at Williamstown, New South Wales was the lead unit but, as usual, the aircraft were sourced from multiple squadrons with eight aircraft present.
The Hornets were tanked by Omega for the long journey here and back and 160 personnel also arrived in support including JTAC crews from 4 squadron who are also based at Williamstown. Surprisingly F/A-18C A21-47 was still sporting its high visibility tail commemorating 20 years of Hornet service with the RAAF from 2008 - this was obviously a welcome addition to the normal grey aircraft from a photographic standpoint at least.
Four B-1B aircraft were also present from Dyess AFB, TX and for each launch they used two aircraft witch took off and landed as a pair. On each recovery they would come over the field as a together and perform a fighter break to land very tight and very close for such a large aircraft, showing off their almost fighter-like manoeuvrability to great effect, mostly landing right (sunset break) for 21L, much to the appreciation of the photographers at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The B-1s now carry sniper pods, seemingly as standard, and there is talk of them being equipped with air-to-air missies as well which would put them in the league of the biggest fighter flying. Judging by the way the pilots them around the sky when landing, they are certainly begining to act more like fighters.
On day three I skipped a talk at the ISAP hotel to catch the recovery, but yet again a weird dark sky and high winds made shooting extremely hard with very few keepers, especially as most aircraft were directed to the frustrating sunrise break side of the airfield. The few keepers were mostly when the jets would be in a patch of blue sky for a second or two, before going back to grey on grey conditions.
Day four was spent at the northern EOR and again the sun decided to make an appearance. The F-16CJs from Shaw AFB, SC again performing the SEAD role, and yet again being out of bounds for photography on the ground were the first to arrive at the EOR and seemed to take forever to be prepared for flight. This probably just seemed longer as we were basically willing them away so we could actually perform some photography. The Shaw unit have been participants at the last couple of Red Flags but have recently been very touchy regarding photography with the only external change, we think, being a new antenna.
Another welcome splash of colour came from a one of the EA-6Bs from VAQ-209 "Star Warriors" based at NAS Whidbey Island, WA performing the SEAD role, sporting a glossy black tail with a sinisterly lit Darth Vader helmet. A single EC-130 from Davis-Monthan, AZ completed the SEAD force, and unusually flew during the day, which made a nice change.
Joining in the interdiction role with the RAAF F/A-18s and USAF B-1Bs were F/A-18s of the US Marine Corps from MCAS Beaufort, SC (VMFA-122) and the Harrier GR.9s from RAF Cottesmore. The Harriers did something I've never seen them do before at Nellis, which was to taxi side by side in pairs along the thin taxiways past the EOR. We had to move back further than usual as the boundary line was basically being taxied on by the nearest aircraft.
As usual the escort role was filled by F-22As but this Flag marked the first appearance of aircraft from Holloman AFB, NM and the new 49th Fighter Wing. A couple of the aircraft still displayed their old AK tail codes, as these aircraft have been arriving from Alaska to fill the new fleet at Holloman, while Alaska gets newly built aircraft. A-10Cs came all the way from Spangdalem in Germany and, as usual for A-10s, they made some real sporty approaches when recovering.
This trip turned out to be one of my most productive trips here in a long time, made all the better by the excellent access and great company.
[photo/serial list]