Red Flag Alaska concludes

EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --

Red Flag-Alaska 19-3, a Pacific Air Forces-sponsored exercise designed to provide realistic training in a simulated combat environment, concluded, Aug. 16, 2019.

“For RF-A 19-3 we have participating units from the U.K., U.S., Canada and Australia,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Loren Keisling, RF-A 19-3 team chief.

More than 1,500 service members and 100 aircraft participated from more than 12 different units stationed around the world. The exercise enabled each unit to exchange tactics, techniques and procedures while also providing the opportunity to improve interoperability with joint and combined forces.

RF-A 19-3 was the first iteration of the exercise to include agile combat employment scenarios, which involve landing an aircraft in an austere environment with a maintenance team to refuel and rearm without typical base infrastructure.

“Red Flag-Alaska is our National Defense Strategy in action,” said Col. Benjamin Bishop, 354th Fighter Wing commander. “Being able to exercise capabilities like agile combat employment in a deliberately challenging exercise environment enables our team to build a more lethal force with joint and international partners.”

Red Flag-Alaska has provided U.S. and international partners the opportunity to integrate their forces in a realistic threat environment since its inception as COPE THUNDER in 1975.

The next season of RF-A kicks off in the spring of 2020.