F-35B stealth jets join Red Flag combat exercise at Nellis for first time

The Marines landed and took off Tuesday at Nellis Air Force Base, flying into history with their F-35B stealth jets that are the nation’s first joint strike fighters to participate in a Red Flag air combat exercise.

“It’s pretty historic,” said Air Force Col. Bradley Bird, Red Flag Air Expeditionary Wing vice commander for the exercise that began July 11 and runs through July 29.

“There is no exercise like this anywhere else in the world, in the history of air power,” Bird said during a media briefing at the Nellis base.

In addition to the detachment of six F-35Bs from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 based in Yuma, Arizona, Bird said this Red Flag features “the multi-domain of space wing leadership,” an umbrella provided by the 50th Space Wing in Colorado to fight and win wars in space and cyberspace.

“We’re talking about cyberwarriors. We’re talking about space assets, intelligence personnel,” he said. “We have Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy, special operations forces that all get together in extremely challenging scenarios and get a chance to get in the room together and work it out.

“The only other place that’s going to happen is in a real conflict. So I cannot emphasize enough: This is preparation for what we may be called on to do in the future for this country.”

This Red Flag — the third of four this year — includes 3,500 military personnel and nearly 100 aircraft, including F-22 Raptors, B-52 bombers, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets, KC-135 tankers and the Green Knights’ F-35Bs from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.

The F-35B Lightning IIs have short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities, but the two that flew in Tuesday afternoon’s session used conventional runway takeoffs to launch into the skies over the 2.9 million-acre Nevada Test and Training Range north of the Las Vegas Valley.

Marine Lt. Col. J.T. “Hefty” Bardo, commanding officer of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, said flying in the same airspace with such an assortment of aircraft while engaging would-be enemy aggressor jets is challenging for a pilot “to make sure you’re doing things the correct way.”

“As a Marine, to be able to come in here and leverage off the very professional exercise the Air Force puts on and to get some of their lessons learned, and incorporate the way they frame the problem, it’s just a valuable training for all of us,” said Bardo, 40.

Asked if any of this Red Flag’s plans had changed in light of world tensions that erupted most recently Friday when a military coup attempt in Turkey was quashed, Bird said changes to the exercise format aren’t needed.

“The training that we have right now and the scenarios that are going on can be applied worldwide,” he said. “So at the end of the exercise, they’re basically … well-prepped for anything going on in the world, including whatever role we may have currently.”

Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2.