Aggressor Squadron Enhances Red Flag Ops: Air Force officials say the airmen of the 64th Aggressor Squadron, from Nellis AFB, Nev., performed up to expectations in their first engagement at the newly renamed Cope Thunder, now called Red Flag–Alaska. The addition of the aggressors make the exercise more closely resemble the original Red Flag, staged out of Nellis—and that was the “key driver” behind the whole idea, said Col. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, the 57th Adversary Tactics Group commander. He added that Eielson would get its own Aggressors at some point.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…