DTN News - ISRAELI DEFENSE NEWS: Israeli Air Force To Host Major Multinational Exercise

Asian Defense News: DTN News - ISRAELI DEFENSE NEWS: Israeli Air Force To Host Major Multinational Exercise  

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Arie Egozi, Tel Aviv - Flight
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 9, 2013: The Israeli air force is planning to stage its largest ever multinational exercise, with at least five foreign air forces due to participate. To be mounted from Uvda air base, the manoeuvres are expected to involve "dozens" of different types of combat aircraft, local sources says.

In recent years, the Israeli air force has trained in several different countries in Europe, but this will be the first time that full squadrons from foreign nations will go to Israel to perform such a major exercise.

One air force source says that while the planned exercise may look like a local copy of the US Air Force's "Red Flag" series of exercises, it will differ by including the availability of unspecified "Israeli elements".

In preparation for hosting the multinational activity, the Israeli air force recently performed a major exercise, dubbed "Blue Flag", in which Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters from its "Flying Dragon" squadron acted in the aggressor role.

Israeli sources say many air forces are willing to join the multinational exercise, mainly because of the host nation's recent operational experience. The Israeli air force was heavily involved in the "Pillar of Defense" operation against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip late last year, with the service having attacked 1,500 targets and used 2,000 weapons across different types.

The Israel Defense Force/Air Force ordered a total of 362 F-16s, from early F-16A/Bs to the latest F-16I. Fifty of these aircraft were surplus USAF aircraft, given to Israel by the US as payment for restraint during the 1991 Gulf War despite Scud attacks. All Israeli F-16s are fitted with custom Israeli electronics.

Israeli F-16s have been used extensively in combat, and scored 47 kills to date. They were also used in the bombing of the Iraq's nuclear reactor in Osirak.

In August of 1978, when the Carter Administration's arms sales restrictions policy had reached its zenith, the government of Israel announced plans to acquire 75 F-16A/B's. The fact that Israel had just signed the Camp David agreements with Egypt, however, had established an Israel-friendly climate in Washington, and the acquisition plans were approved.

The first F-16 deliveries to Israel (all 75 Block 10 aircraft, except for 18 F-16A's and 8 B's that were originally built as block 5 but had already been converted to Block 10) took place under the Peace Marble I Foreign Military Sales program. These planes were originally intended for the Imperial Iranian Air Force, but the demise of the Shah in 1979 and the consequent rise of the Islamic fundamentalist regime caused these planes to be diverted to Israel. They had a number of internal changes that were unique to Israeli requirements, including the fitting of chaff/flare dispensers. The first IDFAF F-16, together with some other Vipers, was flown to Hill AFB, where initial pilot and ground crew conversion took place.

The first four F-16s, known as Netz (Hawk) in IDFAF service and wearing standard sand/brown/green camouflage colors, arrived in Israel in July of 1980 after an 11 hour delivery flight. IOC was achieved a few weeks later. Although the last 22 of these aircraft were put on hold by the Reagan Administration following the Raid on the Osirak reactor, final deliveries took place in 1981.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Arie Egozi, Tel Aviv - Flight
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS

DTN News - RUSSIA DEFENSE NEWS: Russian Air Force To Take Part In USAF Red Flag Training Exercises

Asian Defense News: DTN News - RUSSIA DEFENSE NEWS: Russian Air Force To Take Part In USAF Red Flag Training Exercises

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources The Voice of Russia
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 5, 2012: Despite a cooling off in relations between Russia and NATO countries, neither party has refused taking part in joint military programs.

One such program is the regular aerial combat training exercise of the US Air Force and its allies, called “Red Flag”. The next exercise is scheduled for October 2012.

US Military command came up with the idea of conducting Red Flag exercises during the Vietnam War, when the USAF and naval aviation primarily used heavy multi-functional bombers such as the F-4 Phantom-II and F-105 Thunderchief. These bombers demonstrated their inability to engage in close combat with Vietnam’s light MIG aircraft. The reason for such failings was the strong reliance placed on powerful radars and medium-range missiles on the new American fighters. However, in practice the engagements very often did not go the way the pre-war theoretical schemes designed them to and the ratio of losses did not benefit the American side.

The situation had to be corrected – especially since at the same time in the other part of Asia above the sands of Levant, pilots of the Israeli Air Force on French and American aircraft showed wonderful results in aerial combat missions against Arabs who had far more powerful aircraft compared to Vietnam and who had gone through the same Soviet school.

The US Air Force then ordered a study known as Project Red Baron II, which showed that a pilot's chances of survival in combat dramatically increased after he had completed 10 combat missions. As a result, Red Flag, since starting in 1976, had the goal of offering every pilot and weapon systems officer (WSO) the opportunity to fly 10 realistically simulated combat missions in a safe training environment to give them more experience in real combat situations.

Today the Red Flag exercise is an advanced aerial combat exercise conducted in several cycles during the year. Besides Red Flag and Red Flag-Alaska, which mainly focus on fighter aerial combat, there are other cycles as well. For instance, the Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment (JEFX) – a large scale exercise for the headquarters of the US Air Force and its allies.

There is also Jaded Thunder, which is a series of combat training exercises in the course of which pilots from the US Air Force, Naval, and Marine aviation learn to detect and identify ground targets, including those camouflaged as civilians or civilian objects in a congested urban area.

Finally, there is MAFEX – Mobility Air Forces Exercises. These involve training transport aviation, where pilots learn how to interact using various communications and target detection devices as well as in the situation of a radio-electronic war.

In spring of 2012 it became known that the Russian Air Force is to participate in the Red Flag training exercise in the fall of 2012 together with Americans. From 8 until 19 of October, Red Flag Air Combat Exercise 13-1 will be held at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada (the exercises are numbered in accordance with the fiscal years, and exercise in the fall will be number one in the 2013 fiscal year). Like India, who participated in the Red Flag several years earlier using its Russian-made SU-30 MKI, Russia will get a chance this year to test its aircraft in realistic combat maneuvers with USAF aircraft. This chance is very important, since up until now the only Russian aircraft of the fourth generation which fought in a real combat situation against western aircraft has been the MIG -29, but the possibility of deploying it in the conditions of very specific wars of 1991 and 1999 was limited. Under such circumstances, the chance to test modernized Russian aircraft such as the SU -27 SM, SU-30M2, MIG -29SM and other strike aircraft – despite simulations, they are still against real western aircraft and pilots – is too attractive to be miss out on.

There is a political question, however: “Who are we friends against?” The answer is very simple: against nobody. Russia and the United States have been successfully talking the same language in the military sphere for a long time. Here, more problems unite the two countries than separate them. At the same time, the existing contradictions can be solved over a short period of time. However, as one could tell, that does not prevent us from continuing to study each other.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources The Voice of Russia
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS 

Asian Defense News: DTN News - ISRAELI DEFENSE NEWS: The Israeli Red Flag

Asian Defense News: DTN News - ISRAELI DEFENSE NEWS: The Israeli Red Flag
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Strategy Page
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 24, 2012: For the third time in the last six months the Israeli Air Force has hosted foreign fighter pilots for tactical training. Israeli fighter pilots are considered the best trained in the world, and Israel maintains a special training program, complete with pilots trained and equipped to operate as likely foes would, to train their own pilots. The latest nation to send fighters and pilots for training is Poland, flying F-16s in for that purpose. Previously, Italy had sent Typhoons and Tornados and Greece F-16s.

The Israeli training center is based on the one pioneered by the U.S. Air Force Red Flag program and the U.S. Navy's Top Gun training. Using American aircraft for "aggressor (or dissimilar) training" began in the 1960s. The original "Top Gun" fighter pilot school was established in 1969, by the U.S. Navy, in response to the poor performance of its pilots against North Vietnamese pilots flying Russian fighters. What made the Top Gun operation different was that the training emphasized how the enemy aircraft and pilots operated. This was called "dissimilar training". In the past, American pilots practiced against American pilots, with everyone flying American aircraft and using American tactics. It worked in World War II because the enemy pilots were not getting a lot of practice and were using similar aircraft and tactics anyway. Most importantly, there was a lot of aerial combat going on, providing ample opportunity for on-the-job training. Not so in Vietnam, where the quite different Russian-trained North Vietnamese were giving U.S. aviators an awful time. The four week Top Gun program solved the problem. The air force followed shortly with its Red Flag school.

Over the last 40 years the two training programs have developed differently, and the entire concept of "dissimilar training" has changed. The navy kept Top Gun as a program to hone a fighter pilot's combat skills. The air force made their Red Flag program more elaborate, bringing in the many different types of aircraft involved in combat missions (especially electronic warfare). But after the Cold War ended it became increasingly obvious that none of America's potential enemies was providing their fighter pilots with much training at all.

In other words, the dissimilar training for U.S. fighter pilots was not as crucial as it had been during the Cold War. Actually, it had been noted that flying skills of Soviet pilots was declining in the 1980s, as economic problems in the USSR caused cuts in flying time. During that period American pilots were actually increasing their flying time. Moreover, U.S. flight simulators were getting better. American pilots were finding that even the game oriented combat flight simulators had some training value.

So in the late 1990s, Top Gun and Red Flag found their budgets cut. But the programs remain, as does the memory of why they were set up in the first place. If we find that, say, China is continuing to improve its combat aviation, and gives its fighter pilots more flying time and their politicians maintain a bellicose attitude towards the U.S., there will be a need to increase American Top Gun training. Because of the new Chinese "dissimilar training" effort, the U.S. Top Gun and Red Flag schools are being restored to their former prominence, and Israel has become one of the best Red Flag operations outside the United States. The Chinese move is certainly a very meaningful one, as it shows that they are serious about preparing their pilots to fight and defeat Taiwanese and American pilots. Dissimilar training is how that is done and for most nations Israel is the nearest place to get it.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Strategy Page
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS