Photo By Tech. Sgt. Christopher Thornbury | A RC-135V/W Rivet Joint takes off during Red Flag 25-1 at Nellis Air Force Base,...... read more read more
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Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. – Active duty, Reserve and Air National Guard members of Offutt participated in Red Flag 25-1 and Bamboo Eagle from Jan. 27 to Feb. 14, 2025.
Two RC-135V/W Rivet Joint aircrews, maintenance team, and logistic readiness crew went to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada and worked alongside a Royal Air Force’s 51st Squadron aircrew to perform critical Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions throughout both exercises.
“Even though this is the 50th anniversary of Red Flag the exercise strives to make the most modern, realistic, and challenging environment for our Airmen,” said Maj. Rex Villa, 343rd Reconnaissance Squadron director of operations. “By attending the exercise, we strengthen our relationships with our allies and partners while also honing our skills.”
Throughout the exercises, the coalition aircrews operated 11 missions, which provided critical information for leaders to make the best-informed decisions that affected the large-scale exercise’s results. They provided real time threat information to other airborne platforms participating in high-risk scenarios.
“We glean the intel that we are gathering and push it out to all the players that need it,” said Tech. Sgt. Thomas Astle, 97th Intelligence Squadron airborne cryptologic language analyst. “We make sure the Command and Control element and our fighters know exactly what is going on in the battlefield and what threats that they are facing.”
The crews were able to contribute to the overall mission while testing and perfecting their own procedures in a simulated combat-representative environment.
“With the rinse and repeat of Red Flag, it is a great opportunity for us to take lessons learned from the first week and apply it next week,” said Senior Airman Selina Flynn, 343rd RS airborne systems engineer. “We got to test new Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Bamboo Eagle. It is a great environment for that, and a lot of training happens internally and externally; that has been a lot of fun hammering it out here.”
During Bamboo Eagle, the aircrews practiced their capabilities to take proactive and reactive schemes of maneuvers within threat timelines to increase survivability and combat power while exercising agile combat employment.
The crew landed at March Air Force Base, California to refuel on the ground without their maintenance personnel. They tested and demonstrated a unique capability to have aircrew fill non-standard roles that further enable resilient and flexible logistics in support of agile combat employment to increase force survivability. They then took off from March to execute the mission at an extended duration and range.
The 55th Wing took the opportunity to collaborate with our UK partners, codifying and validating our standard operating procedures, while strengthening our relationship.
“It has been great to interact with the RAF because they have been doing the same mission as us in a slightly different perspective, so we can learn for their experiences and put that into practice and we can teach them some of the things we’ve been doing, said Astle. “[We were able to] meld our experiences and [streamline, allowing us to] interact more cohesively when the time comes to work together.”
Each crew consisted of roughly 30 personnel to include pilots, navigators, electronic warfare officers, ACLAs, ASEs, and intelligence operators.
The crew demonstrated the U.S. Air Force’s ability to operate alongside the joint force and allies in a contested, dynamic environment against high-end threats on short notice. They highlighted the 55th Wing's ability to respond to global threats with speed, flexibility, and cooperation; strengthening our ability to protect national and Allied interests.
| Date Taken: | 02.20.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.20.2025 11:20 |
| Story ID: | 491124 |
| Location: | OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, NEBRASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 43 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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