What’s that sound? Nellis Air Force begins Red Flag exercises

An F-16 Fighting Falcon fighting jet pilot signals after taking off from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Dec. 4, 2018 | Photo by Airman 1st Class Bryan T. Guthrie/U.S. Air Force, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Southern Utah and Southern Nevada residents may notice increased noise from military aircraft as the Air Force once again conducts Red Flag exercises, which started Monday and will continue through Aug. 6.

A military aircraft flies overhead at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, Jan. 28, 2019 | Photo courtesy of Don Schoemer, St. George News

Nearly 100 aircraft are scheduled to depart Nellis twice a day and may remain in the air for up to five hours during Red Flag, according to a press release issued by Nellis Air Force. There will be night launches as well to allow air crews to train for nighttime combat operations.

Red Flag 21-3 will welcome around 2,200 U.S participants from 17 states from the Air Force, Navy, Marines, Space Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve.

The exercise is organized at Nellis Air Force Base 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 training range are the home of a “peacetime battlefield,” providing combat air forces with the ability to train to fight together, survive together and win together.

A military aircraft flies overhead at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, Jan. 28, 2019 | Photo courtesy of Don Schoemer, St. George News

Red Flag provides participants an opportunity to experience advanced, relevant and realistic combat-like situations in a controlled environment to increase their ability to succeed in combat and return home safely. It also prepares maintenance personnel, ground controllers, space and cyber operators to support those missions within the same tactical environment.

The 414th Combat Training Squadron is responsible for executing Red Flag, and this exercise is just one of a series of advanced training programs administered at Nellis and on the Nevada Test and Training Range by organizations assigned to the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center.

For more information about Red Flag, call the Nellis Air Force Base Public Affairs Office at 702-652-2750, option 3, or contact them by email.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

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