Another visit to one of the Red Flag exercises held at Nellis AFB, near Las Vegas, Nevada.
Until recently, the dates for Red Flag exercises were usually known well in advance and previously would last 3 weeks. The first exercise of each calendar year, known as YY-1) would take place in January, normally from around the third week of the month.
In 2024 there were two changes – dates were brought forward by 1 week, due to the Superbowl being held in Las Vegas and the third week of the exercise was replaced by a new exercise called Bamboo Eagle, which saw the dispersal of some of the participating units to other bases to test a more realistic response to real-world situations, where forces are not concentrated in a single location.
These changes caught me out in 2024, as you can see from my Red Flag 24-1 and March AFB reports.
However, I over-compensated and arrived at Nellis AFB a week early for Red Flag 25-1 🙁
Luckily, many of the participating units arrived during that week and take part in familiarisation flights, so fortunately I was able to capture nearly all of the aircraft.
That said, I did return a week later to make sure I was able to capture some more images, including some late arrivals.
The weather in January in Las Vegas can be quite cool, with temperatures often dropping below freezing overnight but normally bring clear blue skies, which was the case for 6 out of the 7 days I was there, with only the last day being mostly cloudy and overcast, as you will see from some of the images.
Another factor, however, is the relatively short daylight hours, with the sun not rising very high in the sky. This means that early morning shots from around the Las Vegas Speedway are into the sun, requiring prodigious use of the Shadows and Highlight tool in Photoshop to bring out much of the detail. However, towards the end of the day, the ‘golden hour’ can provide the opportunity for some excellent colours.
The locally based units provided the Red Team of aggressors, utilising the following aircraft and units (courtesy Dreamlandresort.com):
General Dynamics F-16CM/DM Fighting Falson 64th AGRS
Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II 65th AGRS
Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II 48th FW
General Dynamics F-16CM/DM Fighting Falson 706th AGRS
Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II 6th WPS
The following is a list of visiting participating units and types (courtesy Scramble.nl message board):
Royal Australian Air Force
Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightning II 3sq
Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightning II 75sq
Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightning II 77sq
Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightning II 2OCU
Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet 1sq
Boeing EA-18G Growler 6sq
Royal Air Force
Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 6sq
Airbus Industries A330-243 MRTT Voyager KC2 10/101sq
USAF
Northrop B-2A Spirit 13th BS “WM”
Boeing B-52H Stratofortress 2nd BW “LA”
General-Dynamics F-16CM/DM Fighting Falcon 55th FS “SW”
General-Dynamics F-16CM/DM Fighting Falcon 77th FS “SW”
General-Dynamics F-16CM/DM Fighting Falcon 79th FS “SW”
General-Dynamics F-16CM/DM Fighting Falcon 20th FW “SW”
McDonnell-Douglas F-15E Eagle 389th FS “MO”
McDonnell-Douglas F-15E Eagle 366st FW “MO”
McDonnell-Douglas F-15C/D Eagle 122nd FS “JZ” LA ANG
Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightning II 388st FW (421st FS) “HL”
Lockheed EC130H Hercules 55th ECG “DM”
Lockheed HC-130J Hercules 71st RQS “MY”
Lockheed HC-130J Hercules 71st RQS “FT”
Lockheed HC-130J Hercules 79th RQS “DM”
Lockheed MC-130J Hercules 9th SOS
Lockheed AC-130J Hercules
Boeing E-3G Sentry 963rd AACS “OK”
Boeing E-3G Sentry 964th ACCS “OK”
Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint 38th RS “OF”
Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker 912th ARS AFRC
Boeing KC-135T Stratotanker 171st ARW PA ANG
Sikorsky HH-60W Jolly Green II 41st RQS
USMC
Lockheed-Martin F-35B Lightning II VMFA-211
USN
Grumman E2D Hawkeye
Boeing EA-18G Growler VAQ-209
Boeing EA-18G Growler VAQ-135
Also on base at various times were the following:
Sikorsky VH-92Patriot VMX-1 (President Trump was visiting LV at the end of the first week)
Dornier C-146A Wolfhound
Beech C-12C Huron
Northrop Grumman Bombardier CRJ-700 (x 2 working with the Weapons School)General Dynamics F-16C/D Fighting Falcon (The Thunderbirds)
Boeing C-17 Globemaster III “(Thunderbird 14)”
In addition, various civil aircraft provide logistical support for the participating units:
Boeing 777-212ER Eastern Airlines
Boeing 767-224ER Omni International
Boeing 737-8Q8 Sun Country
Boeing 737-5L9 Sierra Pacific
Boeing 737-924ER United Airlines
Airbus A319-112 Allegiant Airlines
Just one more thing before the images – I am really enjoying using my Nikon Z8/Nikon 180-600mm combination – I’m finding that I am getting many more ‘keepers’ in terms of images (at least to my eye) and even pushing the ISO values quite high, compared to what I was doing with my Nikon D500/Nikon 200-500mm combo. You may well see some grain in some of the images below, particularly those taken at the end of the day – there are even a couple of ISO1000 shots in there!!
Hope you like the images – there are rather a lot!!
