Nellis scheduled to begin Green Flag West 09-08 July 10 Published July 9, 2009 Nellis Public Affairs NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev -- Southern Nevada and California residents may notice increased military aircraft activity as the Air Force begins Green Flag West 09-08, July 10. Green Flag West, conducted by the 549th Combat Training Squadron here and the 12th Combat Training Squadron at Fort Irwin, Calif., provides a realistic close-air support training environment for aircrews preparing to deploy. Personnel perform air support missions in realistic combat scenarios over the National Training Center at Fort Irwin. Missions will take place July 12-23, between the times of 3 p.m. to midnight every day except Saturdays. The flight path between Nellis AFB, and Fort Irwin will include parts of the Northern Las Vegas valley, across Mt. Charleston, and north of Pahrump during each mission. Squadrons participating in Green Flag West 09-08 include F-16s Fighting Falcons, E-3 Sentries, MQ-9 Reapers, MQ-1 Predators and KC-10 Extenders, from Shaw AFB, Tinker AFB, Holloman AFB, Creech AFB, California Air National Guard, and Travis AFB, respectively. During the exercise, participants will work closely with Air Force joint terminal attack controllers embedded into the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Irwin. The E-3 Sentry will provide command and control of the battle space, as well as functioning as an alternate air support operations center. Fighter units and theater air control system elements from the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and allied nations perform close-air support missions at the NTC, a training area of almost 1,000 square miles. Similar to Red Flag, the realistic simulated combat scenarios provide valuable training on a scale not available to units at or near home stations. The friendly ground forces pit approximately 400 armored and support vehicles and more than 6,000 soldiers against a realistic opposing force in a dynamic and unscripted battle exercise intended to replicate the conditions found in southwest Asia. For more information about Green Flag West 09-08, contact the Nellis Public Affairs Office at (702) 652-2750.
