During the dates of April 28 to May 13, one of the largest multi-national combat training exercises was taking place at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) in Alaska. Key.Aero spoke to the Officer Commanding of No. 47 Squadron, RAF, Wg Cdr James Sjoberg, about the unit’s involvement at Red Flag-Alaska (RF-A) 22-1.
The squadron attended RF-A with a single C-130J Hercules Mk4, serial ZH869, taking four crews with around a dozen support staff, flying out of JBER near Anchorage. The aircraft departed its home base of RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, and routed through Canada, visiting Newfoundland, Winnipeg, and Calgary en-route to JBER.
When asked about the purpose behind sending a C-130J of No. 47 Squadron to Alaska, Sjoberg said: “The main reason to come all the way to Red Flag is to learn how to cooperate with our allies and win the air war in a peer-on-peer conflict.
“RF-A provides some of the best air training available anywhere in the world, with one of the largest aerial ranges in the world, the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (JPARC), and the latest ground and air threats participating. For each mission up to 70 aircraft fly as opposing red and blue. RF-A is about coming up with a robust plan against a complex threat,…
