The Royal Air Force (RAF) has landed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, to commence Exercise Red Flag 26-1 - the 51st iteration of this premier combat training. Alongside United States Air Force and Royal Australian Air Forces, aviators combined are put against a high-end spectrum of defence training in a realistic environment.
What is Ex Red Flag?
After the Vietnam war in 1975, the exercise was designed to help pilots survive their first ten combat missions. It unfolds over the vast Nevada Test and Training Range, a 2.9 million acre airspace.
Red Flag 2026
This year, an unprecedented 12 Typhoon join from RAF stations Coningsby and Lossiemouth. Supported by Air Mobility Force A400M and of course the RAF Voyager who will be driving critical air to air refuels for all participating force aircraft. Also joining from the Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) fleet is 51 Sqn and the RAF Rivet Joint.
Red Flag is not just about flying, personnel support the Exercise from all Air functions. Just one example is the Robson and Resilience Centre (RRC) who have deployed a team to support service personnel training in mental resilience. The RRC provides force development and adventurous training to build physical and mental leadership, and teamwork in personnel - skills that immediately apply to work and output.
Also within the 300 plus RAF Red Flag team are personnel from Global Enablement, RAF Police, Air Command and Control (C2) Force, 90 Signals Unit, Medics and Engineers, just to name a few.
The video below is from red Flag 2025, and gives a flavour of what you can expect for this year.
