View allAll Photos Tagged Redflags
An F-16 taking off in an extremely low flex departure.
The person standing next to me said that he had been to six Red Flags before, and never seen one that low before.
A Republic of Korea Air Force crew chief stands behind an F-16D ''Fighting Falcon'' prior to launching the jet Aug. 4, 2015, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. The ROKAF is participating in RED FLAG-Alaska 15-3, a Pacific Air Forces commander-directed field training exercise for U.S. and partner nation forces, providing combined offensive counter-air, interdiction, close air support and large force employment training in a simulated combat environment.
The plaza outside the main station at Beijing in March 2005. Surprisingly this was one of the few places where the 'Red Flag' was still prominent.
My wife and I had some free time so we decided to drive down to Las Vegas for the Red Flag exercise in mid-March 2025. The weather forecast was good and there seemed to be a decent line-up of participating aircraft. Unfortunately both items fell short. The sky conditions were excellent but the weather sucked. Very high winds affected some of the fighters. The first afternoon we were there all F-16s and F-35s were grounded due to crosswinds. Also unfortunate was that Flex departures were cancelled at the last minute so the planes had to do a straight out departure - this sucked for photographers. In the late afternoon the recovery shifted to landings over Cheyenne Avenue. This was our first visit there in about a year and we couldn't believe the change. It was a mix of a homeless camp, scrap yard, bombed out Gaza, and just a totally trashy area. Burned out cars and car parts were everywhere. We didn't feel safe there despite being among other plane spotters. Wow. I took these photos in mid-March 2025.
Re aircraft activity - it seemed a lot lower than at prior Red Flags. There were a lot of Nellis resident aircraft but not too many visitors. It was a decent trip but not a great one.
Unexpectedly, I found Chicago's El far more interesting than I'd expected, so I spend a good deal more time photographing it than expected...With bridge workers in the background, basic protection is provided by the worker with the red flag. Any symbolism about red flags and Trump is now evidently moot. To paraphrase Roy Scheider in Jaws, I think they're gonna need a bigger flag. 11 April 2016.