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SECAF cites importance of Blue Flag


HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) -- Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall said the Blue Flag exercise is one of the most important in the United States military. The most recent Blue Flag was held June 14-19.

"Blue Flag is critical to the United States Air Force, our sister services and our allies," the secretary said. "This year's exercise is unparalleled in its scope, realism and impact on training. I am also very pleased with the degree of international cooperation, and that our NATO and Gulf Cooperation Council partners were able to participate this year. Blue Flag is another demonstration of the real world value of modeling and simulation."

The secretary was here to observe Blue Flag, one of the largest computer-assisted modeling and simulation exercises in the world. More than 1,600 Air Force, Navy, Marine, Army, NATO, Gulf Cooperation Council, Jordanian and Pakistani officers and enlisted from the active and reserve participated this year.

This exercise was organized by the Air Force's Battlestaff Training School, Air Combat Command and the 9th Air Force to train combat leaders in command, control and intelligence procedures in a variety of operational theaters. "The world situation demands we be able to plan an air campaign with thousands of sorties a day, establish a real-world air operations center, generate air tasking orders and prosecute a war," said Colonel Don Rupert, exercise director. "Blue Flag provides us that training. Each Blue Flag uses a different theater of operation and scenario. This Blue Flag used Southwest Asia."

Vietnam-era ace Lt. Col. Jeff Feinstein, a veteran of 12 Blue Flag exercises said, "There is no 'how to do an air war' book, per se. Short of war, modeling and simulation, through Blue Flag, is where the rubber meets the road. There is a direct connection between our success in Desert Storm and Blue Flag training."

"This is a high fidelity exercise," said Lt. Gen. Carl E. Franklin, U.S. CENTAF commander, and Blue Flag Joint Forces Air Component commander. The air operations center we set up here is the same way we do it in a real war. The modeling and simulation used in Blue Flag lets us test and develop capabilities in command, control, communications, computers and intelligence. It all comes together here."

The exercise trains participants in the efficient and effective employment of air power. This year, theater airlift and information warfare components were integrated. "This is stressful and demanding; sometimes the participants forget they are in an exercise," Franklin said. "This exercise is as realistic as humanely possible because we use the same equipment and people here as we would in Riyadh if Saddam decided to take aggressive action tomorrow.

"General Horner, former CENTAF commander, best characterized the value of the Blue Flag exercise when he said that Blue Flag made Desert Storm a success. I agree absolutely," said Franklin. "That was in 1992. Today's Blue Flag is a quantum leap forward in terms of the applications delivered by modeling and simulation. Modeling and simulation gives us the capability to provide training that is either not possible or plausible any other way. It's very realistic and cost effective.

"The future made possible by advances in modeling and simulation is remarkable," continued Franklin. "In particular, distributed mission training and distributed interactive simulation are increasingly enabling us to overcome the limitations imposed by travel and facilities. We are refining the capability to run the models with forces in one location and the exercise in another with live, virtual and constructive capabilities."

Along with U.S. CENTAF forces, there were 300 representatives from the other U.S. military services. Those augmentees provided the Joint Forces Air Component commander with service-unique expertise on employment of their air power assets. The Reserves also played a key role.

This was the first Blue Flag ever to include non-NATO participants. Delegations from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates played an active role in the exercise. There were observers from Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan and Qatar. These countries are all within U.S. CENTAF's area of responsibility. Military members from Canada, Germany, Great Britain and Norway were also involved.

Feinstein summarized Blue Flag best when he said, "Today, wars are fought by numbered air forces and the JFACC -- until Blue Flag, the Air Force couldn't train properly to execute an air war campaign. Modeling and simulation, and this training, have a real world impact on our operational ability."