Good day to you, oh FighterSweep Faithful! We trust you’re having a busy, productive week, so we wanted to take a few minutes and delight your eyes and imagination with a perspective of modern air combat not often seen.
Traditionally, when we talk about Red Flag, Sentry Eagle, or other Large Force Employment exercises, we are speaking about it from the Blue (READ: Good Guys) side of the mission: the integration of assets, the complexities of full-spectrum, cross-domain warfighting in an effort to establish and maintain battlespace dominance, etcetera.
That being said, in order for Blue assets to have the quality training and learn the valuable lessons they require to stay alive when the bombs and bullets are real, accurate threat replication becomes a necessity. Thankfully, we have such a force already in place, and it has been for over forty years:
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Enter the 57th Adversary Tactics Group at Nellis Air Force Base and, for the purposes of this conversation, the 64th Aggressor Squadron. We have a multi-part series on the different Aggressor units in the works, so while that continues to evolve, this puts you inside the cockpit with the 64 AGRS F-16C pilots. If you’re going to beat your enemy, you need to have someone who knows the enemy’s equipment, as well as tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) just as well–if not better–than he does.
The specialists at the 64th are absolute masters of their craft, and this video takes you inside the mind of Aggressor pilots “Scram” and “Flash” as they formulate and explain their game plan for wreaking havoc on the Blue Air and helping them achieve the Designated Learning Objectives.
Go take a look, and stay tuned for our comprehensive look at th 57th ATG as a whole!