Wheels up for Red Flag

The fighters from Sweden flew into town a few days ago, landing at Nellis Air Force Base after a 15-hour journey across the Atlantic, the American heartland and, finally, darting down from above the Rockies.

With the help of state-of-the-art U.S. Air Force KC-10 air tankers, each of the eight Saab JAS-39 Gripen (pronounced "Gree-pen") fighter jets refueled a dozen times to make it to Nellis for this week's Red Flag air combat training exercise.

More than 90 aircraft from the United States, Singapore, Sweden, the Netherlands and United Arab Emirates are participating in the exercise, which runs through Feb. 1.

But why would such a small air force from a country with a tradition of neutrality and the home of the Nobel Peace Prize that isn't even a member of the NATO alliance want to train for war?

It's simple, said Lt. Col. Anders "Handy" Segerby, detachment commander for the 2nd Squadron, 17th Air Base in Blekinge, Sweden. "For us, Red Flag is more in line with if we need to defend Sweden, in case we meet the real enemy."

There's also the "interoperable" capability, he said, that Sweden's fighter pilots need to have to interact with "protectorate partners" in the international community.

"It's more peacekeeping and peace enforcement," Segerby said Wednesday, shortly after six Gripens landed after a daylong exercise to find and destroy mobile missile sites in the Nevada Test and Training Range. The range stretches for nearly 3 million acres north of the Las Vegas Valley.

While that seems like a big place on paper, it becomes relatively small when dozens of fighters, both defenders and enemy aggressors, streak across it at speeds measured in the hundreds of miles per hour.

To do this safely, the fighter pilots and crews flying air tankers, behemoth bombers and air traffic control planes all need to play from the same sheet of music, so to speak.

"When I fly in my fighter, I speak English. I use pounds in describing my fuel. I use the American-NATO equivalent way when I want to tell where a target is. And before I have too little fuel, I will use the same expression as an American, or British or French pilot," said Segerby, 48. "So we are interoperable."

That is critical when the Swedes are called in as unified protectorate partners for NATO peacekeeping missions, as was the case in 2011 when they joined Americans, Danes, Turks, French, Canadians and Italians flying combat missions from Sicily during the overthrow of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Swedish armed forces have slimmed down since the end of the Cold War, said Maj. Lasse Jansson, the communications officer for the more than 110 crew members and maintenance workers accompanying the eight Gripens at Red Flag. By policy, the country now has 100 Gripens, "down from 200," he said. The model, JAS-39, is a Swedish acronym for the jet's multiple capabilities: fighter, attack and reconnaissance.

On Wednesday, the Gripens fired their 27 mm cannons at targets. But, according to Segerby, the Gripen also can drop 500-pound laser-guided and GPS-guided bombs and fire heat-seeking missiles.

Swedish armed forces have evolved since 2001 to be more compatible with NATO forces, said Segerby, 48.

"We have slowly and more and more left the old Swedish Cold War setup," he said. "We have come closer to operability with NATO."

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.