The fourth edition of the biennial exercise Blue Flag took place between 3-14 November 2019 at Ovda Air Base in southern Israel, the largest international air force exercise organised by the Israeli Air Force. The 2019 edition had over 1000 personnel and about 70 aircraft from various nations taking part.
“The cooperation enables high-quality international training, mutual learning and development of flight techniques and the entire package provides an opportunity to strengthen relations between countries and become stronger together” stated Tal Herman, Head of Blue Management Team who clearly underlined the importance of the exercise.
At sunset the German EF2000s are the last ones to touch down on the Ovda runway. Six of TLG71s Eurofighters were deployed late October to Ovda.
Further, he stated, “Success factors for us are to be able to operate from one airbase, plan and debrief together and have centralised exercise management, both base ops and exercise ops. All units involved are located at Ovda.” This airbase has been operational since 1982 and perfectly suitable for large scale exercises with close proximity to various ranges, with low level flying options and ability to simulate Surface to Air Missile (SAM) threats. It currently houses Israel’s 115th squadron ‘Flying Dragons’ which is the dedicated aggressor unit in the Israeli Air Force operating seven F-16C ‘Barak’ fighters.
Blue Flag took place over the airspace across the entire Southern part of Israel. During missions, the airspace was extensively available for participants with no limitations in altitude or speed, withcommercial flights to the new Ramon International Airport near Eilatbeing re-routed during the exercise time. Flying operations were conducted with two missions a day (Sunday-Thursday) by the Blue Forces. Night missions were also planned. During this two week long exercise,19 day and night sorties were withthe Red force providingsignificant challenge,the ‘Reds” starting out easy during the first few flights, but their tactics kept changing as the days went by.
Apart from Israel, Blue Flag Air Forces also included countries such as the United States, Italy, Greece and Germany. This year, both the Italians and Israeli’sshowcased their new F-35A and F-35I ‘Adir’, the latter being Israel’scustomised variant of the F-35A Lightning II. It was a game changer with the exercise introducing a 5th generation fighter aircraft working together with F-16s, F-15s and Eurofighters typhoons.
Blue Flag was led this year by the 133rd Squadron “Knights of the Twin Tail” (operating the F-15C/D ‘Baz), which planned the scenarios in cooperation with the 115th Squadron. With the ‘Adir’ participation in mind, scenarios had to be adjusted in order for these fourth and fifth generation aircraft to integrate and train together, each with their own missions and targets. The scenario of the exercise was based on two fictional countries Red (Nowhere Land) and Blue (Falcon State), with the Blue forces focusing on Defensive Counter Air missions during the first week to protect allied territory and attack missions into Red territory during the second week.
The Falcon Land versus Nowhere Land war is centerpiece of Exercise ‘Blue Flag’ in which the fictional Falcon Land is made up of Germany, Italy, Greece and the United States plus Israeli Air Force squadrons. Their opponents, Nowhere Land, are led by the Israelis 115 squadron, which is specifically used in exercises to mimic enemy aircraft.
As Tal Herman explained concept of ‘Blue Flag’ “the exercise is performed intwo stages starting with BF1, Blue Flag week. During this stage, the participating air forces acclimatise themselves to the environment. The following stage (BF1) takes place during the second week, the participants rehearsed in what we call Theatre Entry and Defence Counter Air (DCA)”. Herman added “During some of the sorties, the participants flew against the "Flying Dragon" Squadron which simulated enemy forces, SAM batteries and MANPADS (Man-portable air-defence systems) amongst other threads to be found on the battlefield”.
The Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare Italiana) deployed six Lockheed Martin F-35A’s to Ovda Airbase.
“During BF2,initial focus was on Small Force Employment (SFE) which was followed by a Large Force Employment (LFE) mission on 14 November. It was the most complexed scenario of Blue Flag withparticipating aircrew executed one sortie per day during the period owing to the long preparation and debriefing of each flight”, said Herman.
A G550 ‘Aitam’ departing for another Blue Flag mission. The aircraft is part of 122 squadron ‘The Nachshon Squadron’ which also operates Gulfstream V ‘Nachshon Shavit’.
While most large-scale military exercises across the globe are conducted with a real or fictional enemy in mind, on the other hand,an international exercise like ‘Blue Flag’ does not have such scenarios. In Blue Flag, these are of a more generic nature with air-to-air battles, strike missions, defensive counter air exercises, suppression of enemy air defence operations (SEAD) and electronic warfare.
The next edition is planned to take place during November 2021.
Carlo Kuit& Paul Kievit/ Bronco Aviation