The Indian Air Force participates in Exercise BLUE FLAG 2017

Since the early 2000s, the Israel Air and Space Force (IASF) has been increasingly involved in international exercises in Europe and North America. A few years ago, Israel started to invite allied partners to Israel to conduct joint military exercises. This time, the country hosted its third ‘Blue Flag’ multi-national exercise from 6-16 November 2017, the event turning out to be historic for a number of reasons, including Indian participation. Adrian Romang reports from ‘on-the-spot’.

Despite enormous efforts to make lasting peace with its Arab neighbours, Israel has so far only been able to sign peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, and even these remain on shaky ground today. The overall situation in the Middle East is still extremely unstable and could plunge the region into total chaos at any given time. This is evident in the increasing rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which often disclose their respective interests and conflicts in or via third countries. Israel is often indirectly affected by these conflicts. Examples of this complex situation are the wars in Yemen and Syria, plus the constant tensions in Lebanon. Israel is keeping a close eye on the developments of the latter two, and does, where it deems necessary, intervene to protect its interests.

This Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk helicopter, based in Palmachim, supported Indian-Israeli special operation exercise

Historic Exercise

Despite or maybe because of this serious security situation, it is obvious that Israel, the only real – albeit isolated – democracy in the Middle East, is keen to find partners for stability. “Against a network of enemies, we must share information and technology. If we don’t deal with the issues arising in the Middle East, they might reach the rest of the world,” explains Major General Amikam Norkin, Commander of the IASF since 14 August 2017.

Israel has much to share and can draw from immense combat experience. Since day one of declaring independence on 14 May 1948, the State of Israel has again and again been dragged into wars and conflicts. Constantly being under pressure and threatened from different directions, Israel learned very early on that it needs a good mix of quality intelligence, smart tactics and state-of-the-art weapons in order to stay on top. “Israel is willing to share this experience but also wants to learn from other forces.” A platform for the exchange of such experiences has for several years been the international aerial exercise Blue Flag. It is likely to continue gaining importance, since numerous air forces are keen to train with the Israelis. But the training possibilities in Israel are limited, and while Blue Flag will probably not grow much more in size, it could certainly get more diverse, and practices and tactics can always be honed. It will be interesting to see which nations will join Blue Flag in the future.

It all started in 2013, when the first Blue Flag took part and the Air Forces of the USA, Italy and Greece sent fighter aircraft to Israel. In the second edition of Blue Flag in 2015, Polish F-16s joined the four existing partners and in 2017, the German, French and Indian Air Forces participated for the first time. “It was a very emotional and historic moment, when German fighter aircraft landed in Israel for the first time in more than 100 years,” said Lt Col ‘I’, Commander of Ovda Air Force Base where Blue Flag takes place.

Seen on take off is an F-15 ‘Baz’ with ACMI and ECM pods, plus an impressive tally of kill markings on the nose

“It was also emotional for us”, adds Lieutenant Colonel Gero von Fritschen, Commander of the Tactical Air Force Squadron 73 in Laage, Germany, who led the 125-strong German delegation. He continued: “We are by now used to deploy to worldwide assignments and exercises, but the participation in Blue Flag is a special honour for us.” Unfortunately, the  developing friendship of the air forces of Israel and Germany was not appreciated in all quarters – of either country – but Lt Col ‘I’ commented: “We cannot change the past, and therefore prefer and want to look ahead.”

“Israel’s declared goal in hosting Blue Flag is first of all to deepen its diplomatic relationships, but also to promote the exchange of experiences among partners,” explained Lt Col ‘R’, Commander of Ovda’s operation support unit. “First and foremost, we want to conduct and carry out a safe and accident-free exercise, which cannot be taken for granted considering the language barriers, the cultures involved and the different ways of working. Although the 10-day exercise is intense and requires everyone to be focused, it shall also be a joyful and fun event.”

The Blue Flag Concept

For political and diplomatic reasons, the exercise is not directed or aimed at a specific hostile country nor is there a specific enemy. Instead, Blue Flag addresses various scenarios and associated tactics. There is no competition with a winner as such, but the entire exercise should be a win-win situation for all participants. The main focus lays on providing a high-quality training under – as far as possible – realistic circumstances.

Blue Flag usually is a single base concept, meaning that all units involved fly their missions from Ovda Air Force Base in the Negev desert of southern Israel. The base was built in the wake of Israel’s peace accord with Egypt and the consequent withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in the early 1980s and as compensation for Israeli bases abandoned there. Inaugurated in 1982, Ovda AB is located in the Ovda valley some 60 km north of Eilat, Israel’s southernmost town. For Israeli standards, the base’s location is relatively remote and therefore ideal to host training components – no Israeli combat units are based here, only units tasked with advanced training. Thus, the Air Force Officers Academy, the Air Force infantry training school and the Aviation Professions School call Ovda their home. In addition, Ovda is considered Israel’s ‘Advanced Training Centre’ and the only flying unit stationed here is an aggressor squadron, 115 ‘Red Dragons’.

For good reason, Israel is one of the few countries outside the United States to run and maintain such an aggressor unit, which is tasked to simulate enemy tactics in order to sharpen the skills of Israeli pilots. “It’s a proven concept and contributes to Israeli air superiority in the region.” In April 2017, the ‘Red Dragons’ transitioned from the F-16A ‘Netz’ (Hebrew for Hawk, see box), to the F-16C ‘Barak’ (Hebrew for Lightning). Not surprisingly, the ‘Red Dragons’ also play a vital role during the Blue Flag exercise, as they act as the enemy using hostile tactics to challenge blue forces.

Each mission day begins with joint briefing of all participating units of both the red and the blue force. During this briefing, the basic concept and the goal of the day is presented to both parties, with the aim to ensure and fly safe missions. Afterwards, each force meets for an internal briefing to discuss and determine the procedures and the tactics to be applied to meet the mission goal without the opposing force knowing the details. This allows missions to be carried out as realistically as possible and is what sharpens the skills of the ground and aircrews. At the end of each day, both red and blue forces meet again for a debriefing.

After arriving in Ovda and prior starting the almost two week long exercise, all participating units receive a very thorough briefing on the training area and the very specific air space conditions, followed by familiarisation flights. 6 November, the first official exercise day, was considered a ‘warm up’ day. From the next day however, matters got serious and complexity of the exercise continued to grow each day. Early days were dedicated to defensive counter air (DCA) missions including border patrol exercises during both daylight and night, followed by three days of so called ‘blue-versus-blue’ exercises. “During such missions, blue forces fly against each other and the purpose of those exercises is to sharpen anticipatory thinking and the analytical ability of air crews. Everyone tries to develop and use creativity to beat his equal opponent,” says Lt Col ‘N’, commander of the IASF’s 133 Squadron ‘Knights of the Twin Tail’ from Tel Nof, the unit tasked with leading this year’s Blue Flag. “Blue Flag simulates a continuous combat scenario in which different targets are ‘destroyed’ each day, and success or failure affects the rest of the exercise.”

The third scenario simulates air-to-ground attacks over enemy territory, with simultaneous threats from enemy fighter planes and hostile SAMs. The 2017 edition of Blue Flag saw for the first time the deployment of a Patriot system from the 139th Brigade to Ovda, operating as part of the red force.

So–called small force and large force exercises (SFE and LFE) finally rounded up Blue Flag 2017. Some missions were flown at night, a special challenge over the sparsely-lit Negev desert, despite all aircraft having state-of-the-art technology.

Complex airspace and training area

Even in the day, flights over the desert are “no piece of cake,” as the view is often hazy and many times deserts lack clear contours and colours, especially at noon when there is little shade or contrast. Ovda offers ideal conditions to train for this type of flying.

Another advantage are the short transit flights to the training range, as Ovda is virtually just south of that range. The area south of Ovda towards Eilat is too narrow and therefore not suited for jet fighter training, as the border with both Jordan (to the east) and Egypt (to the west) are each less than 10 miles, a bare minute of flight time, away. However, the area north of Ovda not only widens, but is also sparsely populated all the way to Beersheba, and thus allows training flights without any restrictions in both altitude and speed, allowing extreme low level flights. In any case, Ovda AB allows dogfights and other flight exercises to commence immediately after taking off heading or turning north, making better use of expensive flight time.

During Blue Flag, the airspace south of Beersheba is restricted, and all civilian air traffic is banned from the area. The few commercial flights to Eilat operate in an air corridor temporarily re-located to the east over Jordanian territory. Even without Blue Flag, Israel’s entire airspace is extremely complex, as in normal circumstances, all interests are taken into account, with as little restriction as possible. However, it is not an easy task to consider all interests, and to keep commercial airliners, general aviation, civil and military helicopters, parachutists, unmanned drones and fighter jets on training or live missions, separated. Another challenge is the fact that one of the most important routes of migratory birds from Europe to Africa and back is above Israel. Because of constant tensions and dangers, the entire nation’s airspace is controlled by the Israeli Air Force Air Traffic Control, but assisted and supported by civilian ATC personnel.

Blue Flag 2017 participants

In addition to the historic participation of six German Air Force Typhoons, there were also other ‘firsts’ – Israel has not seen any French fighters since the Suez crisis in 1956, but for Blue Flag the Armee de l’Air sent a total of five Mirage 2000D from Nancy to Israel. Israel is also looking towards Asia and has found a partner in India, the two countries having established diplomatic relations in 1992. During PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel in 2017, the two countries celebrated 25 years of friendship and the ties were further strengthened and ‘upgraded’ to a strategic partnership. Thetwo nations agreed to work together closer in several areas, including defence matters. It can be said that the relationship between Israel and India has never been better, and asa result, India participated for the first time at a Blue Flag exercise. The IAF deployed a single Lockheed C-130J-30 Super Hercules (serialled KC 3806) together with a team of 50 personnel, including commandos of the Garud Special Forces, which teamed up with their Israeli counterparts, the well known SAR and Special operation unit 669. The two air forces’ cooperative training exercise included both ground and aerial missions such as urban warfare, navigation and combat search and rescue. Commandos did perform conclusive training sessions including raids on tactical facilities, extraction, airborne transportation by helicopter and mutual formation flights.

“In the exercise, we were placing emphasis on teamwork and the ability to cooperate with infantry forces on the ground, as well as strengthening the cooperation between the combatants and aircrew members in order to minimise the helicopters’ time on the ground,” said Captain Tal, a SAR Unit 669 operator and the unit’s exercise leader. “One of the main challenges we faced while planning the exercise was to adapt its content to both forces. The Indian unit is different from SAR Unit 669, but there are also many similarities.”

The Indian Hercules operated out of Nevatim Air Base, where Israel’s transport fleet of various C-130 Hercules models and Boeing 707 tankers are based. The joint Indian-Israeli exercise during Blue Flag comprised C-130J-30 Hercules of both nations operating out of Nevatim near Beersheba, supported by Sikorsky CH-53 ‘Yasur’ (Super Stallion) and S-70 ‘Yanshuf’ (Black Hawk) helicopters out of Tel Nof and Palmahim Air Base. The next step of Indian-Israeli cooperation is already planned, as Israeli crews are due to fly to India in two C-130J-30 ‘Shimshon’ aircraft for a two-week deployment to train with their Indian counterparts in a topography completely different to the one in Israel.

A C-130J-30 ‘Shimson’ from 103 Squadron ‘The Elephants’

‘Veteran’ Blue Flag participants were the Air Forces of the USA, Greece and Italy, all of which came for the third time. While the US Air Force sent six Aviano-based F-16Cs of the 510th Fighter Squadron to Ovda, the Hellenic Air Force sent six F-16C/D from its 335th Squadron based at Araxos. The Italians, in turn, participated with five Panavia Tornados in the ECR (Electronic Combat/Reconnaisance) and IDS (Interdiction Strike) versions. The Polish Air Force’s deployment of six F-16C/D from Poznan AB to Israel marked the second participation of that eastern European country.

In total, around 80 fighter aircraft and some 1200 people took part in Blue Flag, with Israel contributing about half of each. The IASF sent no less than fourteen McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle (A/B/C/D variants) from 106 and 133 Squadrons, both based at Tel Nof, as well as eighteen F-16C/D/I of four different squadrons – from Hatzerim (107 Squadron), Ramat David (109 and 117 Squadrons) and Hatzor (101 Squadron). All Israeli and foreign Air Force units flew as ‘blue forces’ and were supported by two Israel AF Gulfstream 550 AEW&C early warning aircraft.

Carrying out such a complex and huge exercise requires a much from the Israeli Air Force. The preparations took over a year and included, among other things, extensive technical inspections on aircraft to ensure a high availability.

 The exercise “worked out perfectly” with some 1,000 missions flown safely and free of accidents. The stage seems set for Blue Flag 2019 then, with preparations due to start soon.

 The author thanks the Israel Embassy staff in Berne and Rome, the European and North American desk of the IDF Spokesperson unit, and Lt Col ‘R’ and his team for making this report possible.