Message posted by gary on January 21, 2002 at 21:41:19 PST:
I did a FOIA just to see if there was any update to the Red Flag listing on DLR. The DLR schedule is identical to what the USAF sent me (except Joerg fixed a few typos on the document). What is interesting and unfortunately not on the net is a two page document called "Tenets of Red Flag". It clearly defines the objectives of the event. For instance, Red Flag represents the "first 10 days of war", which I gather to mean once the air war gets started. A few of the lines I found interesting are: "Selected RED FLAG periods will also incorporate elements of RED force Information Warfare, Electronic Counter Measures, and Camouflage Concealment, and Deception (CCD). " You may recall that GPS jamming was used during the last flag exercise. Noted in the document is that some periods of Red Flag are only for US forces. The US Only flags are "reserved to fully integrate Special Acess Programs (SAP), Special Access Required (SAR) elements of tactical warfare". I've noticed these US only events in the past, but didn't detect anything different between a US only flag vs the international flags. Red Flag is supposed to use "operationally approved" equipment. However, there is a provision to use new equipment with the proper approval. That might allow the use of a global hawk since they are now being used in Afghanistan.
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