Space, cyberspace forces participate in Red Flag

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Tony Richardson
  • Red Flag Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. --  Practicing tactics, techniques and procedures throughout the full spectrum of tactical warfare is a staple of Red Flag exercises. Red Flag 11-3 is unique in that it includes the integration of space and cyber forces at the tactical level from planning through execution and debrief.

"This integration allows the exercise to provide a more heavily-contested and degraded operational environment than ever before to prepare crews for major combat operations against a near-peer adversary," said Col. Jim Sears, Red Flag Air Expeditionary Wing commander. "Previously, Air Force Space Command assets were only employed in a limited capacity during these exercises".

Most Red Flag exercises last approximately two weeks. Red Flag 11-3 marks the shift to an inclusion of a third week to provide more training opportunities in different scenarios, said Sears.

Air Force Space Command space and cyber units also have desired training objectives, said Lt. Col. Pell Thompson, Space Innovation and Development Center Detachment 1 commander.

"Our learning objectives include executing space and cyberspace operations in a contested environment against a 'thinking' adversary, defending operational networks to preserve mission assurance, measuring synchronized space and cyberspace command and control processes in the air operations center environment and performing cross-domain planning to meet theater objectives," Colonel Thompson said.

Red Flag 11-3 is also unique in that it is the first large-force exercise to use the new Non-Kinectic Operations Coodination Cell concept in the Combined Air Operations Center. Additionally, this is first time that space and cyberspace operators have been assigned as mission planning chiefs and NKO package commanders, which places AFSPC personnel in key exercise leadership roles, Colonel Thompson said.

"The NKO Coordination Cell integrates airborne electronic warfare, network warfare and space control capabilities with theater kinetic operations," Colonel Thompson said. "Kinetic operations deal with the physical destruction of targets, as in traditional warfare. NKOs cover the range of offensive and defensive operations in the electromagnetic spectrum."

During the exercise, space and cyberspace operators are conducting space control operations, network operations and defending the networks of the CAOC at Nellis. The Advanced Space Operations School conducted Space 101 classes for all exercise participants. Space and information aggressors are also conducting operations to create contested environments, which allow joint and coalition partners to gain valuable insight into space and cyberspace capabilities, said Thompson.

"Current and future threats require the Air Force to depart from the traditional 'air-centric' Red Flag model to allow operators to prepare for asymmetric attacks in all warfighting domains," said the colonel. "Integrating AFSPC space and cyberspace operations into Red Flag is a significant step forward to meet and defeat these threats."

The 21st Space Wing provides missile warning and space control to North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Strategic Command through a network of command and control units and ground based sensors operated by geographically-separated units around the world.

The 21st SW also conducts space surveillance, which is a critical element of the space control mission and vitally important to supporting future theater missile operations. More than 22,000 manmade objects in orbit around the earth, ranging in size from a baseball to the International Space Station, are regularly tracked by space surveillance units.

Red Flag is a realistic combat training exercise involving the air forces of the United States and its allies. The exercise takes place north of Las Vegas on the Nevada Test and Training Range, which includes more than 12,000 square miles of airspace and 2.9 million acres of land.

Aircraft and personnel deploy to Nellis for Red Flag under the Air Expeditionary Force concept and make up the exercise's "Blue" forces. Each mission brings the diverse capabilities of each weapons system together to successfully execute specific missions, such as air interdiction, combat search/rescue, close air support, dynamic targeting and defensive counter air.

The "Red" force threats are aligned under the 57th Adversary Tactics Group, which controls seven squadrons of USAF Aggressors, including fighter, space, information operations and air defense units. The Aggressors are specially trained to replicate the tactics and techniques of potential adversaries and provide a scalable threat presentation to Blue forces, which aids in achieving the desired learning outcome for each mission.