The US, UK, and Australia conducted joint air drills over the Nevada desert and beyond on Wednesday, simulating a high-end combat operation against Chinese fighter planes.
Reuters reported that its staff accompanied British forces for several hours during the three-week-long US-hosted Red Flag exercises, aboard the UK’s KC-2 Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker aircraft.
Jet blast signals the start of Exercise Red Flag - the largest combat air exercise in the world 🇦🇺🇬🇧🇺🇸.
— Royal Air Force (@RoyalAirForce) January 20, 2023
Full story: https://t.co/ckL7hcos2E@usairforce @ausairforce @nellisafb pic.twitter.com/8ssqepSfzy
Although the exercise coincides with the discovery and shooting of the Chinese spy balloon in US airspace, US Air Force Colonel Jared J. Hutchinson, commander of the 414th Combat Training Squadron, clarified that the annual drills were not in response to any recent events.
“[China is] just the pacing challenge that we train to so that we’re ready ... We think that if we’re ready for China, we’re ready for anybody,” Hutchinson told Reuters.
#ICYMI - Close to 100 aircraft and 3,000 coalition service members flew in for RED FLAG - a large force air combat training exercise centered on readiness & interoperability between joint and allied forces.@aircombatcmd | @NellisAFB https://t.co/Y45M23Yxzg
— U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) February 1, 2023
The drills aimed to improve their interoperability.
Similarly, the Royal Australian Air Force’s Air Commodore John Lyle told the media house that the exercise would simulate bringing the air forces into “an area where there has been an invasion by a hostile country.”
Golden hour ghost.
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) February 17, 2022
A @usairforce B-2 Spirit stealth bomber taxis across the runway during exercise Red Flag at @NellisAFB, Nev. Red Flag is the Air Force’s largest air-to-air, multi-domain training exercise. pic.twitter.com/FTMER2LdQA
“So, our role will be to support the force to effectively proceed into the area that’s been occupied and to undertake targeting of key assets to allow us to degrade the enemy’s capabilities,” Lyle added, in a veiled reference to China’s possible invasion of Taiwan.