Page 1 - Desert Lightning News, Nellis AFB Edition, Aug. 18 2017
P. 1
vol. 1, no. 6 Serving Southern Nevada’s mililtary community, including Nellis, Creech and NTTR August 18, 2017
An Aerotech news And review publicAtion • www.Aerotechnews.com
Red Flag 17-3 integrates MQ-9 Reaper
by Senior Airman Christian Clausen Air Force photograph by Airman 1st Class Adarius Petty
Creech AFB, Nev. An MQ-9 Reaper stands ready to provide warfighters with persistent attack and reconnaissance to U.S. and joint coalition partners.
MQ-9 Reaper aircrews from the 732nd “One thing we really try to market Exercises such as Red Flag offer dis- officer course to overcome and restore
Operations Group stationed at Creech ourselves on, is that we bring a lot to the tinct challenges for aircrews to integrate issues such as degradation of communi-
Air Force Base, Nev., participated in Red fight and can bring more to the table cohesively in order to prepare for the cations, navigations, and link systems.
Flag 17-3 from July 10-28, 2017 at Nellis than they think we can,†said Capt. Leo, next potential fight so that if and when
AFB, Nev. 17th ATKS pilot. “The preconceived no- it occurs, they will be ready. Overall, all of the MQ-9 aircrew mem-
tion is that we’re unmanned and don’t bers expressed that opportunities like
During this Red Flag, the MQ-9 crews matter, however, we’re able to play on “When we consider the contested en- Red Flag are vital to ensuring a combat
aimed to prove the Reaper’s multi-role our strengths to help integrate and vironment we know that with potential ready Air Force.
capabilities and train over new and achieve overall mission success.†enemies we need to be ready for their ca-
evolving tactics. pabilities,†Michael said. “What we train “It’s very important for us to partici-
The MQ-9s are able to use their 20 for here is directly related to what we may pate in Red Flag because we get to learn
“The mission with Red Flag 17-3 with hours or more loiter time to provide encounter in the future. We have to be what other platforms do and showcase
the MQ-9s were air interdiction, dy- increased battlefield awareness, adding able to combat other hostile capabilities our capabilities while learning how to
namic targeting, and combat search and to the ability of finding targets with against us.†integrate seamlessly,†Leo said. “We then
rescue,†said Staff Sgt. Zach, 22nd Attack precision weapons in today’s tight urban take this experience and teach our fellow
Squadron sensor operator. “We had three environments. During the exercise scenarios, MQ-9 aircrews so that we’re always prepared for
different scenarios every day and the real crews worked alongside the electronic the mission at hand.â€
challenge was learning how to integrate
with other assets in the package and
educating them on what we bring to the
fight. For the MQ-9 we can bring high-
fidelity sensors and precision weapons.â€
During the large force exercise the
crews integrated with not only fighter,
bomber, and command and control air-
craft, but also with joint and coalition
air frames as well. Notably, the Reaper
joined forces with the Air Force F-35A
Lightning II and U.S. Marine Corps
F-35B.
“The big picture we were trying to
drive here was how to integrate those
fourth and fifth generation aircraft
together,†said Capt Michael, 17th
ATKS pilot. “The F-35s had different
capabilities and mission sets, but when
we’re working with them, we’re looking
at how we can help them do their job
better and how can they enable us to
get to where we need to go to execute
our mission.â€
During counter-air and air-interdic-
tion missions, MQ-9s and F-35s used
each other’s unique abilities to work
together and create synergistic effects
between the platforms.
“What everyone starts to see is the fact
that no one system will win the war,†Mi-
chael said. “They might win one specific
engagement but it takes everybody work-
ing together to achieve overall victory.â€
INSIDE: Commentary — 2; News — 3-6; Feature - 7; Air Force News — 9-10
