NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nevada, Feb. 8 (Reuters) – The United States, Britain and Australia on Wednesday conducted joint air exercises over the Nevada desert and beyond as part of an effort to simulate high-level combat operations against Chinese warplanes and air defenses.
Reuters accompanied British troops for several hours during the US-hosted three-week Red Flag exercises aboard the British KC-2 Voyager tanker plane, which provided fuel for US and British fighter jets on Wednesday.
US Air Force Colonel Jared J. Hutchinson, commander of the 414th Combat Training Squadron that runs Red Flag, said the annual exercises were not tied to recent events. On Saturday, a US fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina, raising tensions.
“(China is) just the pace challenge that we train for so we’re ready … We think if we’re ready for China, we’re ready for anyone,” Hutchinson said, citing US policy .
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The core of the exercises was to address the vast distances the United States, Britain and Australia would face operating across the Pacific, and to improve the interoperability of the three countries’ air forces.
For the crew aboard the Royal Air Force’s Voyager, this means they serve as a sort of airborne refueling station – providing air-to-air refueling for fighters carrying out the simulated mission.
(1/5) A United States Air Force F-35B aircraft refuels during the annual Red Flag military exercise between the United States, Great Britain and Australia, in Nevada, U.S., Feb. 8, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Air Commodore John Lyle, commander of the RAF’s Air Mobility Force, told Reuters that during the Red Flag exercises, the mission would simulate taking the air force to “an area where there has been an invasion by a hostile country”.
“So our role will be to support the force to advance effectively into the territory occupied and to direct important resources to enable us to reduce the enemy’s capabilities,” Lyle said, without China by name name, or identify which simulated area was invaded.
The Pentagon has expressed growing concern in recent years about Beijing’s pressure on self-governing Taiwan, an island that China considers a breakaway province.
In addition to the refueling plane, Great Britain also flew Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets during the exercises. Australia contributed EA-18G Growler aircraft, according to data from Red Flag organizers.
The US government has identified China as the top strategic priority of the US military, even as it spends billions of dollars supporting Kiev in fighting off invading Russian forces.
Speaking in Washington last week, US Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns also warned that the United States knew “as a matter of intelligence” that Xi had ordered his military to be ready to launch an invasion of the self-governed state by 2027. Taiwan to export.
“That doesn’t mean he’s decided to launch an invasion in 2027 or any other year, but it’s a reminder of the seriousness of his focus and his ambition,” Burns told an event at Georgetown University in Washington.
Reporting by Phil Stewart; Edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan
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