Red Flag March 2009

Red Flag 2009-3 photographs

I will do a follow up to this thread with the latest frequencies.

reply to post by gariac


Please do, I have no idea or geusstimation as to which this thread is attempting to disseminate. That is just my observation in a semi-lucid state of mind.

I see military jump-planes, yes. But why look at them?


[edit on 28-3-2009 by pluckynoonez]

reply to post by gariac


Nellis/Red Flag/ Socal Desert military frequencies

Those are really good photos. Where is the best place to view near Rachel?

reply to post by DesertShadow


There is no good place to observe Red Flag aircraft from Rachel. Rachel is technically a quiet zone or something to that effect. Of course, it gets buzzed often, but I don't believe their is a pattern to how aircraft fly over Rachel. [Note if you want to see a test aircraft, Rachel would be the last place to fly since it is the most populated place in the area. I have seen low altitude refueling over Rachel. They fly (flew) a track that turns around the Cedar Pipeline Ranch I saw a KC-10 refuel a B2 in that track.]

Most of the Red Flag photographs you see on the net are from Coyote Summit. A few people go to Cedar Pipeline Ranch. There are a few other spots people use that I could document, but I don't use them.

reply to post by gariac


Garic, please do share the locations of where you took these photos and other photo-spot locations. It would help my next Red Flag visit.

Last time, I was stupid enough to hang around Rachel, NV. My hopes of seeing fly-bys were shot down when they told me Red Flag was only conducting night missions.

reply to post by guppy


I haven't been to a night only Red Flag and haven't heard of one. However, I only go to one or two a year. If it wasn't for the Australian F111, I would have sit this one out. March in the range is damn cold.

Beware of what you hear from people at the Inn. They really don't know much of what is happening around the range, or at least the ones that are still alive. Bill and Dave would watch flag, but now they only do it from their ash-piles on a hill to the south of town. You can see a cross on it. Chuck knew what he was doing, but he doesn't live in Rachel anymore.

Regarding timing, the USAF publishes the launch and recovery time.
www.notams.jcs.mil...
In the first box, enter KLSV.
Times will be in GMT, so you need to convert. When their is a Red Flag, it will say "large force exercise."

The Coyote Summit photographs are not actually done on the summit. Rather, you go to this hill:
N37 34 00.8 W115 40 11.1
You really can't use a GPS to show the route. Just park in the lot and climb the hill. It's a 15 minute hike. Some people use this hill
N37 33 58.3 W115 39 34.2

There is another hill (Crash Mountain):
N37 33 23.8 W115 41 30.5
This is good for the choppers, but the hike is about an hour.

reply to post by gariac


It has been a while since I was in the military, but isn't Red Flag part of a military wide exercise? The idea during the Cold War was to generate all the Air Force's planes during the exercise. This may have changed goals as the Cold War is over now.

reply to post by kidflash2008


Red Flag information

I archived a Nellis document explaining Red Flag, plus a link to a book that goes into the history of Red Flag, on this page. The page needs some updating. If you buy the "Red Eagles" book, you will learn a lot about Red Flag plus of course the history of MIGs around the Nellis range.

reply to post by gariac


Awesome info, gariac. Thanks for sharing.

My trips out there are scare too. I was only able to make it once in 2008. Hopefully time, money and spouse will permit me to make another trip this year.

reply to post by gariac


Nice photos... quite the extensive list of freqs also... Are they in the clear or are they digitized? I mean the ones that seem to have been heard... Seems to me they would be using digital voice to prevent the unwanted from overhearing anything that would really be worth it. Scrambled voice is so cheap these days...

Rgds

reply to post by AllTiedTogether


Everything on the list is in the clear. The frequencies on this list are compiled from:
1) government documents
2) frequencies given out over the radio
3) insiders
4) band scanning

There are all sorts of frequency lists for the Nellis range, but the stuff on this list is verified or come from good sources.

Scrambling isn't all that easy. For it to be worthwhile, you need some schmuck to maintain the code keys. On NFM, there are remote techiniques to program keys, but I don't believe this is the case for UHF AM.

I gather you haven't poked around my website since you wouldn't be asking about scrabmling. I have lots of Red Flag and Janet recordings.
Janet recordings

Red Flag recordings

I should mention there are frequencies I don't publish, namely those used by the base at Groom Lake. It takes too much work to find them, and I don't want the base to feel they have to change them for security reasons. I think they would have a hard time changing the VHF frequencies since there are so few, but what they use now is not what you will find on the net.

You can find the VHF approach frequency in about an hour. Just bring my list and lock out any VHF frequency that is published, then band scan. You might get some out of state frequencies due to the altitude of central Nevada, but eventually you will find all the VHF frequencies. Approach/departure has the most traffic, so that is the one you are likely to find first. Then the VHF tower, and finally VHF ground. Finding UHF frequencies is more difficult.

On this page there are many good photographs of the Red Flag advanced military exercises at Nellis AFB and other locations like Edwards air base in California.

www.richard-seaman.com...

In this picture you can see the MQ-9 Reaper UAV: www.richard-seaman.com...

reply to post by Groomforce


I've met Richard at Edwards. He's very good. However, he doesn't shoot any photos in the field, just air shows.

I found another website about Red Flags. She has some beautiful photographs of Nellis AFB and other installations.

Look here: nellisspotters.com...

www.youtube.com...

Yes, although those are really Nellis photographs. They don't go into the range. It is substantially more difficult (maybe 100x) to get a shot in the range. You need to climb hillsides in the flightpath and hope you get lucky.

Great pics ... thanks for posting them.

The IMAX video on Red Flag is worth a look for any who havent seen it.

The IMAX video is pretty good for what it is. I wish these dumb arse Area 51 documentary producers would put in as much effort as IMAX did.

My complaints about it are pretty minor. One, the background story (Gramps was a pilot, so I want to be a pilot) wasn't needed. Two, much of the imagery is computer generated. If you frame-grab the DVD, this becomes obvious. Third, they mixed two Red Flag sessions together to make the movie. A minor complaint, but it isn't as if they did a documentary about one particular Red Flag. Fourth, there was no mention of the ground units (Rolands, AAA, etc). The threats are a major part of the flag. These "threats" operators put in long hours during the flag in remote locations and deserve some props.

These are some outstanding photo's! Thank you for sharing them.