More Jets, Jamming Make Air Force's Toughest War Game Even Tougher

The world's most difficult air-war simulation just got a lot tougher.

The Air Force's Red Flag war game, held several times a year since 1975 at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, has added much more powerful 'enemy' defenses. Among them: more opposition 'Red Force' jet fighters and electronic jamming capable of interrupting satellite-based communications and GPS navigation, all in what a Nellis spokesman called a 'contested, degraded and operationally limited environment.' For the first time, the good guys in the three-week combat simulation ' the 'Blue Force' ' must gather actual intelligence on ground targets before unleashing mock attacks, a task previously performed for them by exercise managers.

The result is greater degree of realism for an air combat training event already renowned for its difficulty. A pilot returning from a bombing run over Iraq in 1991 famously quipped that the real combat was 'almost as intense as Red Flag.'

The exercise enhancements underscore the Pentagon's ongoing shift away from counterinsurgency and towards high-tech warfare, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, where China is developing air defenses arguably equal to those portrayed in Red Flag. 'What is going on is the recognition that we need to be prepared to succeed across the spectrum of conflict, not just one part of it,' retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, a former F-15 pilot and Air Force intelligence chief, told Danger Room. 'That means exercising to perform against realistic threats that are rapidly acquiring increases in capability that reduce the advantages in the air domain that we have experienced over the last 20-plus years.'

Twice a day ' once at noon and again at 6:00 p.m. ' up to 125 jets launch from Nellis for mock combat, remaining in the air for up to five hours at a time, according to the Air Force. More flying than usual is taking place at night, when both Red and Blue sides must rely more on night-vision goggles, infrared cameras and radars. Most of the actual shooting is simulated using electronic systems, although some bombing runs include live munitions.

The Blue Force in Red Flag 13-3, which kicked off on February 25 and ends March 15, includes U.S. F-15, F-16, F-22 and A-10 fighters; Typhoon and Tornado fighters from the U.K.; and U.S. B-1 and B-2 bombers. Flying low and fast, the fighters and bombers must push through a defending screen of Red Force F-15s, F-16s, F-5s and T-38s ' collectively known as 'aggressors' ' before finding Red Force ground targets and conducting mock bombing runs.

That task is harder than ever thanks to the extra layers of Red Force defenses. Aviation blogger David Cenciotti, who staked out Nellis for several days last week to photograph launching and landing warplanes, counted the Red Force fighters and compared his tally to previous exercises. 'Considering the amount of aggressors launched during the sorties I witnessed, I strongly believed that, compared to [Red Flag] 12-3 [last year], the air threats were noticeably higher,' Cenciotti told Danger Room.

The boost in Red Force fighter numbers likely reflects the Pentagon's increasing worry over China's fast-growing air force and the development of stealth fighters by China and Russia. The flying branch did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Assisting the attackers in Red Flag 13-3 is an armada of specialized surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare planes ' one of the most diverse collections of such aircraft ever assembled outside of an active war zone, and an unusually large one for Red Flag. It includes radar-hunting EC-130s, EA-18Gs, EA-6Bs and F-16s plus MC-12W, RC-135 and P-3 spy planes and E-3, E-8 and Australian E-7 radar planes. Aerial tankers and rescue planes and helicopters round out the support force.

The specialist planes' jobs are, if anything, harder than those of the Blue Force fighters. Not only do the electronic warfare and spy planes have to contend with prowling Red Force fighters, they're also required to actually find and verify ground targets on the sprawling, 5,000-square-mile Nellis training range before the Blue Force planes can attack.

Before, it was considered too difficult to replicate actual intelligence collection at Red Flag. Instead, the specialist planes would only pretend to search. 'Intelligence had to be faked, or what we call 'white carded,'' Maj. Christopher Keown, from the 526th Intelligence Squadron, told an Air Force reporter . 'In the old days you would literally write down the event or intelligence action on a white card and hand it to an analyst.' The analyst would then pass targeting data to the fighter and bomber pilots before takeoff.

Two years ago, the Air Force designated the 526th to improve the realism of Red Flag's intelligence aspect. The current exercise is the culmination of that effort.

While they're hunting ' for real, this time ' the recon planes are also being bombarded by simulated electronic jamming, another relatively recent introduction to Red Flag meant to reflect the increasing high-tech capabilities of countries such as China.

For the current exercise, Air Force Space Command has deployed satellite controllers from Colorado able to deliberately 'degrade' electronic signals between spacecraft and jets. 'We'll be replicating GPS and [satellite communication] electronic warfare threats,' said Capt. Eric Snyder from the 527th Space Aggressor Squadron.

Snyder's interference could force the specialist planes to revert to line-of-sight radio relays for communication, essentially handing radio messages from plane to plane until they reach the intended recipient. For navigating, the Blue Force might have to rely on old-school map-reading and other methods instead of simply trusting in GPS.

Bombing could get harder, too, with GPS-guided munitions put out of commission from the interference. The Pentagon favors GPS weapons but possesses several types of back-ups, including laser- , image- and radar-homing munitions plus unguided models requiring high degrees of pilot skill.

A comprehensive electronic monitoring system at Red Flag 'scores' hits and misses in the air and on the ground. But the war game 'is not about keeping score,' Lt. Col. Robert Reville from the 92nd Information Warfare Aggressor Squadron told Air Force Times in 2005. 'It is about making people better.'

With rival air forces getting better by the day, potentially eroding America's technological advantage, the Pentagon is working hard to preserve the U.S. training advantage ' hence the recent ramp-up of Red Flag's difficulty level.

If there's a downside to the increasingly realistic exercise, it's the cost: each Red Flag costs some $19 million in fuel alone. The flying branch has warned it might cancel future Red Flags in light of ongoing automatic budget cuts at the federal level. In the worst case, that could reverse the progress the Air Force has made in boosting the war game's realism ' and give America's aerial rivals more of a chance to catch up.