Noisy enough for you? Nellis AFB to host Red Flag exercises into February

An F-16 participating in Red Flag exercises, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Jon Duckworth, St. George News

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. – Southern Utah residents may notice increased noise from military aircraft as the Air Force conducts Red Flag 22-1 starting Monday and running through Feb. 11.

F-16 aircraft participating in Red Flag exercises, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, date not specified| Photo by Jon Duckworth, 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. There will be night launches as well to allow air crews to train for nighttime combat operations.

Red Flag-Nellis 22-1 will welcome around 2,900 participants from the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marines, Space Force, Air National Guard, U.S. Air Force Reserves, the Royal Air Force (UK) and the Royal Australian Air Force. The 388th Fighter Wing from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, will take the lead wing position as many aircraft participate in complex mission scenarios against aggressor forces.

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 Nevada Test and 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.

F-117 stealth fighter, location and date not specified | United States government released photo, St. George News

Red Flag gives aircrews an opportunity to experience advanced, relevant and realistic combat-like situations in a controlled environment to increase their ability to complete missions and safely return home. 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 NTTR by organizations assigned to the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center.

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