Inside the world's most advanced dogfight exercise as UK prepares to face evolving threats

At 20,000 feet implicit the Nevada desert, a Royal Air Force Voyager tanker holds dependable arsenic 2 British Typhoons manoeuvre into presumption for mid-air refuelling.

This delicate, high-stakes cognition is simply a important constituent of Exercise Red Flag, the world's astir precocious dogfight grooming workout designed to hole subject forces for the ever-evolving menace posed successful modern warfare.

Held astatine Las Vegas's Nellis Air Force Base for the past 50 years, it pushes pilots and aircrews to their limits, grooming them to run successful high-threat, contested environments. But with Russia and China rapidly advancing their subject capabilities, Red Flag 2025 has shifted its focus.

It is nary longer conscionable astir dogfighting and rocket strikes - this year's grooming incorporates cyber warfare, space-based threats, and physics attacks. In doing so, the UK and its allies recognise that the adjacent large struggle volition beryllium fought not lone with jets, ships, and tanks but besides with hacking tools, satellites, and artificial intelligence.

RAF combatant aviator Flight Lt Calum Falconer is 1 of the 370 British servicemen and women presently retired successful Las Vegas taking part. The 27-year-old apical weapon is not nether immoderate illusions astir however his occupation is present evolving arsenic caller threats instrumentality shape.

"We are surely adapting our grooming to see cyberwarfare and space," helium tells us. "We decidedly look astatine that a batch much now. It's captious that we enactment unneurotic and bring unneurotic the antithetic resources we person to guarantee we are prepared for immoderate menace aboriginal adversaries whitethorn hold. This grooming is cardinal for the UK and the defences we enactment hard to ensure."

Falconer, who trained successful the US, says moving intimately with American and Australian forces is cardinal to keeping the world a safer place. "It is each precise good grooming successful UK airspace, but it's lone erstwhile we are unneurotic successful idiosyncratic that we signifier specified adjacent relationships and tin person those discussions," helium says.

"We tin talk astir definite topics that we couldn't otherwise, and erstwhile the lessons are identified and erstwhile we place lessons, we tin larn them, instrumentality them forward, make caller tactics and past usage them successful the future."

This year, astir 2,700 unit from the RAF, United States Air Force (USAF), and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) person converged successful the Nevada godforsaken to hole for a aboriginal warfare that volition widen acold beyond the accepted domains of land, sea, and air. Part of the two-week workout simulates what a imaginable menace from China could look like.

US Colonel Eric Winterbottom, the Commander of 414th Combat told the Mirror: "Red emblem evolves to lucifer the priorities and the imaginable threats retired there. So close now, it's beauteous overmuch a China scenario.

"We person different emblem (exercise) that we do. That is our planetary emblem and we cater to the participants. So we'll person a Middle Eastern that's two, arsenic we telephone it, successful the spring. That volition beryllium a Middle East scenario. But our dash 2 and dash three, there'll beryllium a China scenario."

Ever since 1975, Red Flag has ever tested pilots successful utmost combat scenarios, from large-scale aerial battles to precision onslaught missions heavy successful force territory. However, arsenic planetary threats evolve, truthful indispensable the grooming to antagonistic them.

For the archetypal time,the workout is afloat integrating abstraction and cyber warfare into its combat scenarios. Threats see attacks connected subject satellites, jamming GPS signals, and disabling craft radar systems with physics interference.

The pilots indispensable present run successful an situation wherever force forces tin unsighted them from space, unopen down their communications, and motorboat cyberattacks to disrupt their targeting systems.

As modern militaries go progressively reliant connected integer infrastructure, these vulnerabilities person go a superior absorption of adversaries similar China and Russia.

Cyber warfare has the imaginable to cripple aerial defences, disable rocket guidance systems, and crook an precocious combatant pitchy into a useless hunk of metal. Recognising this, Red Flag is grooming its aircrews to combat done integer chaos, forcing them to accommodate to scenarios wherever their technology is compromised, their craft are flying blind, and their orders person been intercepted by the enemy.

RAF Group Captain Guy Lefroy, who heads the British relation successful Red Flag, is uncompromising implicit however well-prepared UK forces and their allies are arsenic threats increase. "I don't deliberation we individually arsenic a federation oregon collectively with our allies person been successful a amended presumption before," helium says.

He adds however captious Red Flag is successful preparing the RAF if warfare broke out. "The header position, particularly with Russia aft its penetration of Ukraine, has enactment things precise overmuch successful stark focus," helium says. "But fundamentally, the mode that we spell astir that is nary antithetic present than it was 50 years agone erstwhile this spot started up and 2 years aft that erstwhile the UK was the archetypal overseas subordinate arsenic well.

"So we person ever analysed what we deliberation the adversary capabilities are and past usage that cognition to signifier utilizing what we person and to amended integrate what we person and to recognize what it is that we request to make to possibly capable successful what we deliberation is immoderate of the gaps."

Group Captain Lefroy continued: "Our capabilities are fantastic connected paper," helium says, "but until you really workout them and get the radical who request to usage them acquainted with however they work, past there's ever going to beryllium a grade of uncertainty to the grade that you truly cognize what it is that you're going to execute erstwhile you tract it."

Military strategists present see abstraction the adjacent large battlefield, with adversaries processing anti-satellite weapons that could sound retired GPS networks, disrupt surveillance, and sever subject communications.
This year's workout simulates a struggle successful which adverse forces motorboat a coordinated attack.

Around 30 jets - which see Typhoons, F35, F18 Growlers, and A10 Warthogs - play the enemy, forcing the RAF and allied forces to accommodate to immoderate fixed condition. The pilots are forced to find ways to run without relying connected outer enactment - a world that could go important successful immoderate aboriginal warfare against a technologically precocious opponent.

The US Space Force is besides progressive successful Red Flag, moving alongside aircrews to make countermeasures against outer attacks, space-based rocket systems, and electromagnetic interference. These caller challenges unit RAF pilots to deliberation beyond the battlefield they tin see, preparing them for a warfare that could beryllium decided earlier a azygous changeable is fired successful the air.

As the longest-running overseas workout participant, the RAF plays a important relation successful shaping the exercise's direction. This year, it has deployed Typhoon fighters, refuelling tankers, and physics warfare teams, ensuring that British forces stay afloat integrated with their US and Australian counterparts.

The RAF's Voyager KC2 tankers play a captious relation successful sustaining long-range combat operations. Carrying up to 132,000lb of fuel, it tin stay airborne for up to 12 hours arsenic it acts arsenic a petrol presumption successful the entity for jets. They let fighters to stay successful the aerial longer, extending their operational reach.

Meanwhile, RAF physics warfare specialists are investigating their quality to observe and neutralise cyber and electromagnetic attacks, ensuring that pilots tin combat done interference and support power of their aircraft. With progressively blase aerial defence systems, Red Flag incorporates simulated surface-to-air rocket threats, cyberattacks, and physics deception tactics to make a realistic and unpredictable battlefield environment.

Pilots indispensable navigate done heavy contested airspace, engaging force fighters portion evading carnal and integer attacks. The warfare successful Ukraine has provided a sobering acquisition connected modern warfare, proving that aerial superiority tin nary longer beryllium taken for granted.

Advanced drone technology, physics jamming, and cyber warfare person changed the mode battles are fought, and Red Flag is adapting to these caller realities. Russia has repeatedly utilized physics warfare to disrupt Ukrainian subject operations, highlighting the increasing value of countering integer threats.

China, meanwhile, has rapidly expanded its abstraction capabilities, processing anti-satellite missiles and precocious cyber tools designed to cripple force infrastructure earlier a warfare adjacent begins. For RAF pilots, Red Flag is astir learning not conscionable however to combat against force craft but however to past successful an situation wherever each strategy they trust connected could beryllium nether attack.

As subject exertion continues to advance, this captious workout is expected to germinate further. Future Red Flags volition apt incorporated artificial intelligence, autonomous drone swarms, and hypersonic rocket threats, pushing aircrews to make caller strategies to antagonistic next-generation weaponry. For now, arsenic the latest workout unfolds, British pilots and crushed crews are proving their quality to run successful 1 of the astir demanding grooming environments successful the world.

They are not conscionable preparing for the aerial battles of contiguous - they are grooming for the hybrid, multi-domain wars of the future, wherever the quality to accommodate to abstraction and cyber threats volition beryllium conscionable arsenic captious arsenic aerial combat skills.

Against the backdrop of an uncertain planetary information landscape, the RAF's information successful the world's astir precocious aerial combat workout is simply a wide awesome that it stands acceptable for immoderate challenges prevarication ahead.