The F-35B Lightning IIs have short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities, but the two that flew in Tuesday afternoon’s session used conventional runway takeoffs to launch into the skies over the 2.9 million-acre Nevada Test and Training Range north of the Las Vegas Valley. This Red Flag - the third of four this year - includes 3,500 military personnel and nearly 100 aircraft, including F-22 Raptors, B-52 bombers, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets, KC-135 tankers and the Green Knights’ F-35Bs from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.
So I cannot emphasize enough: This is preparation for what we may be called on to do in the future for this country.”
“The only other place that’s going to happen is in a real conflict. “We have Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy, special operations forces that all get together in extremely challenging scenarios and get a chance to get in the room together and work it out. We’re talking about space assets, intelligence personnel,” he said. In addition to the detachment of six F-35Bs from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 based in Yuma, Arizona, Bird said this Red Flag features “the multi-domain of space wing leadership,” an umbrella provided by the 50th Space Wing in Colorado to fight and win wars in space and cyberspace.
“There is no exercise like this anywhere else in the world, in the history of air power,” Bird said during a media briefing at the Nellis base.
