Red Flag 12-4 finishes Published July 31, 2012 By Staff Sgt. William Coleman 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- More than 1,800 people, 17 units, and 94 aircraft from around the world participated in Red Flag 12-4, a two-week-long large-scale flying exercise conducted by the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center, that ended July 29 here. The exercise included the following U.S. and foreign aircraft: ---74th Fighter Squadron, Moody Air Force Base, Ga., flying A-10C Thunderbolts ---23rd Bomb Squadron, Minot Air Force Base, N.D., flying B-52 Stratofortress' ---66th Rescue Squadron, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., flying HH-60G Pave Hawks ---85th Test and Evaluation Squadron, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., flying F-16CM Fighting Falcons ---964th Airborne Air Control Squadron, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., flying an E-3 Sentry ---422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., flying F-16CM Fighting Falcons ---93rd Air Refueling Squadron, Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., flying KC-135R Stratotankers ---493rd Fighter Squadron, Lakenheath Air Force Base, United Kingdom, flying F-15C Eagles ---421st Fighter Squadron, Hill Air Force Base, UT, flying F-16CM Fighting Falcons ---34th Bomber Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., flying B-1B Lancers ---Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron, Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, S.C., flying EA-6B Prowlers ---Navy Electronic Attack Squadron 209, Joint Base Andrews, Md., flying EA-6B Prowlers In addition to U.S. aircraft, the United Arab Emirates air force, flying F-16s, and the Colombian air force, flying Kfirs, B707 and B767 Multi Mission Tanker Transports participated. Red Flag is a realistic combat training exercise involving the air forces of the United States and its allies. The exercise is organized at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and hosted north of Las Vegas on the Nevada Test and Training Range--the U.S. Air Force's premier military training area with more than 12,000 square miles of airspace and 2.9 million acres of land. With 1,900 possible targets, realistic threat systems and an opposing enemy force that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world, Nellis and the NTTR are the home of a "peacetime battlefield," providing combat air forces with the ability to train to fight together, survive together and win together. "Red Flag 12-4 was our first Large Force Exercise to include remotely piloted aircraft, the Colombian air force and over 1,800 people from three different countries working together as a team, "said Lt. Col. Cameron Dadgar, 414th Combat Training Squadron deputy commander. "Everyone's performance was phenomenal, it was like having a NFL draft and being ready to win the Super Bowl in two weeks," said Dadgar. Click here to view a slide show of Red Flag 12-4 photos.
