previous exercises prioritized survivability recent sessions have taken steps to incorporate
a more diverse set of criteria covering reconnaissance and surveillance as well
as air superiority and strike operations more than a decade since its first flight lockheed
martin's f-35 lightning 2 has established a broad and consistently impressive performance
record in the most challenging games to date red flag is widely considered the u.s air force
usaf premier air combat exercise held over 10 to 12 annual exercises spread between nellis air
force base in nevada and elson air force base in alaska the two-week exercise involves as many as
100 aircraft being tested under accurate training conditions while previous red flag exercises
prioritized survivability the recent session has taken steps to incorporate a more diverse set of
criteria covering reconnaissance and surveillance as well as air superiority and strike operations
not long after the f-35 was declared to have reached initial operational capability ioc 13 f-35
pilots from the 388th fighter wing four fighter squadron face advanced anti-air threats including
enemy air defenses and air-to-air combat aircraft the results are unambiguous the f-35 dominates the
adversary achieving a kill ratio of 15 to 1 while scoring a direct hit with 25 of the 27 guns drop
this despite the fact that its purpose is less to test the f-35s combat powers than its ability to
act as a quarterback in the sky for other friendly aircraft here the results are equally unambiguous
the f-35 proving their ability to act as a power multiplier for older fourth generation
aircraft such as the f-16 leveraging their sensor fusion suite to give the aircraft a
legacy of what one pilot called god's eye view of the battlefield situational awareness is king
added colonel david lyons commander of the 388th fighter wing everyone's sa is upgraded when the
f-35 is on the battlefield not just once either with the four combat squadron replicating equally
impressive results during red flags practice the f-35 while s integrated into the larger blue force
and pitted against the 60 powerful red force aircraft of the equally capable
fighter aircraft while experiencing communication breakdowns and constant attacks of gps denial
even in this very challenging environment the f-35 doesn't have much difficulty doing its job
said colonel joshua wood commander of the 388th operations group it's a testament to
the pilot's training and the jets capabilities as with previous drills f-35 pilots raved about
the fighter's survivability and sensor fusion capabilities with stealth the f-35 can be closer
to a threat than many other aircraft combined with the sensor performance built into the f-35 we can
contribute significantly to most missions said first lieutenant landon moores as this aircraft
matures we continue to see it as a significant force multiplier in a threat-heavy environment
he added red flag has been a success for us and has made our young pilots more lethal and more
confident outside of red flag the f-35 has proven itself in region-specific training a series of
recent war games found that the imminent block 4 revision of the f-35 is one of the few fighters
capable of making a meaningful contribution to u.s efforts to counter a full-scale chinese invasion
of taiwan widely recognized as one most difficult potential scenarios facing the us military today
the vast amount of data gathered from red flag and recent drills couldn't be clearer
even in the most demanding battlefield conditions the f-35 continues to meet and exceed usaf
expectations
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