Last month, the Air Force held its first Space Flag exercise, modeled after Red Flag, the service’s premier air combat exercise held several times a year at Nellis AFB, Nev. Lt. Gen. David Buck, commander of US Strategic Command’s JFCC and of the 14th Air Force, told the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee on Friday that “although it’s nascent,” this initial training session would be “the first of many to follow.” Gen. Jay Raymond, commander of Air Force Space Command, said the exercise helped in “developing depth of space expertise, but then also working the multidomain integration piece.” This point is important, Raymond continued, because space cannot be isolated in its training anymore than it is in operations. “We are also integrating our space operators into the joint exercises, into the exercises called Red Flags, into war games that are joint and international,” Raymond said. The Joint Space Operations Center and the National Space Defense Center “participated in north of 70 exercises last year, integrating space into the larger fight, so I’m really proud of that effort,” he added.
A U.S. F-35C shot down an Iranian drone operating near the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier Feb. 3 in a dramatic incident that American military officials cautioned could lead to conflict amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S.
