On board a B-52 during Green Flag East

The Aviationist has a great post today, with some awesome pictures taken on board a B-52H out of Barksdale, Louisiana during a Green Flag-East mission on August 21st.

Beginning in January of this year, Green Flag-East began using physical SA-6 and SA-8 missile systems on the ranges, to give crews a feel for what the systems look like, instead of just the signatures of them. This will help them identify the missiles quicker when they see them in combat. They're older systems and haven't been used against air superiority aircraft in years, but they're still valid threats against other aircraft, such as the B-52, that can't out turn them, and have to rely on other ways of decoying them.

Where Red Flag is used to train pilots in both air to air, and air to ground combat, but uses simulated troops and ground action, Green Flag trains both aircrews, and ground troops to coordinate together, and rely on each other. The ground troops have a mission to perform that requires them to call in air support, and rely on their JTAC. It allows them to learn what to expect in real combat, as well as what information is needed by the pilots coming in to hit targets. It also allows the pilots to learn what ground troops can and can't do, and them to become used to one another, instead of learning in combat.








The rest of the pictures can be found at:

theaviationist.com...