Red Flag exercises will enliven Las Vegas skies starting Friday

Throughout the next two weeks, residents in the northern Las Vegas Valley may notice increased noise from military aircraft during Air Force Red Flag exercises.

The Red Flag 20-2 exercises are scheduled to run from Friday through March 20. More than 80 aircraft are scheduled to leave Nellis Air Force Base twice a day and could stay airborne for up to five hours during the exercises, which may include night launches, according to a news release from the base.

The exercises are mostly conducted over the Nevada Test and Training Range, a 12,000-square mile area of airspace north of the valley, the release said.

“With 1,900 possible targets, realistic threat systems and an opposing enemy force that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world, Nellis and the NTTR are the home of a ‘peacetime battlefield,’” the release said.

The exercises also help train maintenance personnel, ground controllers, space operators and cyber operators, the release said. The 414th Combat Training Squadron is responsible for executing the exercises.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.