Peacetime battlefield: Red Flag 21-1
From 25 January to 12 February 2021, Nellis AFB (NV) is paradise for fighter pilots, their ground-crew and commanders, trainers and aviation enthusiasts again as large-scale exercise Red Flag 21-1 will take place.
It is expected that over eighty aircraft will join the 21-1. These aircraft are scheduled to fly twice a day, and some aircraft will stay in the air up to five hours over the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), north of Las Vegas (NV). Night flying is also planned as, but these moments are not revealed yet.
The NTTR is the US Air Force's premier military training area with more than 12,000 square miles of airspace and 2.9 million acres of land. The range contains some 1,900 possible targets and pilots will face realistic threat systems to prepare them for future combat missions. The threat systems as well as the Red Air Forces are possbly the best in the world, and cannot be replicated anywhere else. Pilots and maintenance personnel, ground and air controllers, space and cyber operators, intelligence personnel are able in the Red Flag exercise to train as they are expected to fight in all kind of real-world scenarios.
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 NTTR by organizations assigned to the US Air Force Warfare Center.
The following squadrons are expected to participate. Scramble is looking forward to nice pictures from our photographing friends in the States, please send them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and provide us photo details too. Our some 100,000 social media followers and the some 10,000 unique visitors a day to www.scramble.nl will love it!
F-16C/D 64th AGRS ('WA') - Nellis AFB (NV)
L-159A, A-4 Draken International - HQ Lakeland, but based at Nellis (NV)
F-35A 34th FS ('HL') - Hill AFB (UT)
F-16C/D 157th FS - McEntire JNGB (SC)
A-10C 163rd FS ('IN') - Fort Wayne (IN)
F-15E 336th FS ('SJ') - Seymour Johnson AFB (NC)
F-22A 525th FS ('AK') - Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson (AK)
EA-18G VAQ-132 ('NL-54x') - NAS Whidbey Island (WA)
B-1B 34th BS ('EL') - Ellsworth AFB (SD)
B-2A 393rd BS ('WM') - Whiteman AFB (MO)
RQ-4B 12th RS ('BB') - Beale AFB (CA) *
E-8C 16th ACCS ('GA') - Robins AFB (GA)
RC-135 38th RS ('AF') - Offutt AFB (NB)
KC-135R 91st ARS - McDill AFB (FL)
RQ-4B 348th RS ('GF') - Grand Forks AFB (ND) *
E-3C 963rd AACS ('OK') - Tinker AFB (OK)
HC-130J 71st RQS ('FT') - Moody AFB (GA)
HH-60G 66th RQS ('FT') - Nellis AFB (NV)
HH-60W 58th SOW - Kirtland AFB (NM) **
* Most probably operating out of their homebases.
** Unconfirmed participant. If joining 21-1, this will be the first major exercise for the brand-new HH-60W Jolly Green Giant II.
For those who are interested and are able to travel during this terrible COVID era, the Red Flag 21-2 is planned for 8 - 19 March 2021 while 21-3 is scheduled for 19 July - 6 August 2021.
Photo by Stephan de Bruijn