The air force’s“Red Flag” series of exercises has been known to be highly close to the actual combat, and its updated version, the larger-scale“Bamboo Eagle” exercises from this year began in the eastern Pacific frequently. U. S. Media Unashamedly claimed that this is to prepare for a large-scale conflict with China. Chinese experts interviewed by the Global Times said on the 14th that all major US military services have been practicing various so-called“New tactics” under the cover of the“China threat” in recent years, but its essence is still to find ways to fight for more military spending. In fact, even the air force itself admits that the much-vaunted concept of“Agile operations” has had problems in practice.
Almost all types of US military fighter planes have been unveiled
The recently concluded“Bamboo Eagle 24-3” air exercise involved more than 20 troops, more than 150 different types of military aircraft and more than 3,000 soldiers, the U. S. “Defense No. 1” website said Monday. The series of exercises is an extension of the Nellis Air Force Base’s Red Flag exercise, in which, as in the past, participants, british and Australian fighters have also joined the“Bamboo Eagle” exercise.
F-15e and F-22 fighters taking part in exercises
“As an air force, we’re learning that we’re going to be on the front line,” said major general Niemi, Cristóbal of the USAF Air Operations Center, now that the air force no longer has the“Luxury of security” of going to war from a rear base, pilots participating in the exercises will be required to maintain the same operational tempo as before, but must face“Never before seen the threat of large-scale enemy fire.”. This is in contrast to the“Red flag” exercise, which usually only allows pilots to learn their opponent’s tactics and air combat techniques through simulation exercises. In the“Bamboo eagle” exercise, “From C-130 transport aircraft loaded with cargo to the F-22 stealth fighter to engage the enemy, for the first time the U. S. air combat chain completely exposed to the opponent’s threat.”.
Although the US Air Force did not specify the aircraft participating in the exercise, since the start of the“Bamboo Eagle 24-3” exercise on August 2, the US“Power” website said, the military and civilian airports in the United States frequently take off and land various military aircraft. Preliminary statistics show that the US military aircraft participating in the exercise include F-22 and F-35a stealth fighters, F-15 and F-16 fighters, B-1b and B-52 strategic bomber, multiple aerial tankers, E-3 AWACS, C-130J and C-17 transport aircraft, E-11 battlefield communications node aircraft and RC-135 electronic reconnaissance aircraft also appeared in the exercise airspace, u. S. Navy and Marine Corps forces are also involved.
In addition, the exercise also mobilized a large number of US air force and private contractor-provided“Imaginary Enemy” forces to conduct a highly realistic confrontation, for example, the 57th Wing’s 57th IFF squadron simulates attacks on computer networks and information systems, and the 507th IFF squadron simulates IFF systems The famous 64th and 65th Intruder squadrons and the 706th Imaginary Enemy Squadron of the 926th Regiment simulated the main fighters of the imaginary enemy with F-16s, F-15s and F-35s, several private contractor-supplied F-5 fighter jets also took part in the exercise as imaginary enemies, which is rare in the United States in the field training“Big scene.”.
Focus on“Agile operation”
It has become the norm for the US Air Force to hone its air combat skills in exercises involving imaginary enemy forces. Pentagon statistics show that the pilot completed 10 combat missions, the battlefield survivability will be greatly improved. To this end, the United States air force specially organized“Red Flag” annual exercise, through the highly simulated air combat drills, so that the United States and its allies as far as possible to master air combat skills. In the“Red Flag” series of exercises in recent years, the US military has also been increasingly targeted at simulating the PLA’s equipment and combat skills, the 65th“Invader” squadron, for example, purposely replaced an F-35A stealth fighter with the cut-off camouflage paint used by China’s j-20 stealth fighter, claiming that“The future will focus on imitating the Chinese Air Force”.
But the presence of the“Bamboo Eagle” exercise shows that the U. S. Air Force is still not satisfied with this. “The bamboo eagle exercise is a valuable opportunity for our pilots to test their skills and demonstrate their readiness in the face of great power competition,” said Ken Willsbach, commander of the U.S. Air Combat Command, which organized the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. “The purpose of such a rapid and large-scale exercise is to demonstrate the U.S. Air Force’s readiness for complex, large-scale military operations and its ability to respond to high-end threats in a controversial and dynamic environment,” said Admiral David Arvin, who also boasted that the U.S, the“Bamboo Eagle” exercise is a change made by the US air force in response to“Great Power Competition”. This exercise will ensure that the US military is in a fast-changing modern strategic landscape, acquire critical capabilities to counter“Anti-access” threats and project forces on a global scale.
F-35A fighter group
Brigadier General Richard Gudeman, the 57th Wing Commander, said the focus of the bamboo eagle exercise was to “Prepare for a large-scale conflict in the Pacific”, “Bamboo eagle is very important. It is not meant to replace red flag, but to complement and enhance our combat capability. The exercise will vary in size and training, and will still be like red flag, preparing the crew for combat, but it will also include logistics and rapid combat deployment, resupply and delivery. It’s a big deal!”
The inclusion of attacks on sea and long-range targets is of great concern, as long sea flights not only provide the crew with very different perspectives and special challenges, power.com said, it also involves complex logistics, including how the Air Force handles supplies in the Pacific. “Such training scenarios are very similar to future combat scenarios for the US military and its allies in a conflict with China in the Pacific.”. The report said that due to the vast waters of the Pacific, the number of available U. S. military airports in the western Pacific is very limited, which is completely different from the situation of the European continent with airports. Therefore, the U. S. Air Force wants to fight in the Pacific region, often needs the tanker assistance, the related scheduling is very complex. At one point during the“Bamboo Eagle” exercise, 17 tankers were deployed to test the U. S. military’s ability to organize large-scale aerial refueling.
In particular, the outside world is concerned that the“Bamboo Eagle” exercise focused on rehearsing the“Agile operation. According to the US Air Force’s assessment, in the event of a large-scale conflict, the current distribution of the first island chain and the second island chain of the US military bases are difficult to survive the PLA’s long-range fire. To improve the combat survivability of fighter aircraft, multiple fighter units need to be deployed in separate locations and maintain frequent mobility, as do the relevant command structures and logistical support units. However, remote airfields that are not vulnerable to attack are often ill-equipped and difficult to secure, and they are vulnerable to attack if they stay on the ground for long periods of time and are frequently deployed. The Air Force has already conducted exercises to test how to integrate the combat capabilities of the transport aircraft and the F-22 stealth fighter, for example by accurately scheduling the transport aircraft and the F-22 to land almost in tandem at frontline airports, the C-130 carries the fuel, ammunition and maintenance equipment needed by the F-22 to enable the fighter to take off quickly and return to combat. Once secured, the C-130 also left the airport quickly to avoid being hit by an opponent.
Gudeman said, the air force further tested such issues as distributed bases, challenging command and control, distributed operations, and“How to deploy air power at a time and place of our choosing” during the“Bamboo Eagle” exercise.
The effectiveness of such exercises is questionable
Chinese experts interviewed by the Global Times said that whether it is the“Red flag” exercise or the“Bamboo Eagle” exercise, both indicate that the U. S. Air Force is increasingly targeting imaginary enemies for future operations against China. As the US media has said, the original training of the US Air Force was mainly aimed at European battlefields, including the design of combat performance and tactical tactics of fighter planes, which are not quite suitable for the combat environment in the Pacific Ocean, especially with the rapid modernization of the PLA in recent years, the pressure of the U. S. Air Force in recent years launched a series of targeted actions. We need to be on high alert about this.
In fact, not only the United States Air Force, the U.S. Navy, Army and Marine Corps have also developed a series of new concepts and tactics in recent years, such as“Distributed kill concept”, “Multi-area task force” and“Forward base operations”, under the guise of“Responding to the China threat”, it also calls for the construction of special equipment such as ultra-long-range artillery and light landing craft. But experts believe that the United States military proposed these new tactics are more for the acquisition of resources, fighting for military funding, and even at the expense of each other. For example, the U.S. Army in 2021 introduced the concept of a“Long-range strategic cannon,” which it claims has a maximum range of more than 1,000 miles and is designed to disrupt China’s“Anti-access/area denial” capabilities, but U. S. Navy and air force officials scoffed that“This is a bad outdated design.”. The concept of“Agile operational application” practiced by the US air force during the“Bamboo Eagle” exercise is also controversial. Previous tests by the US military have shown that in order to fully guarantee the combat capability of advanced fighter aircraft at remote airports, it is far more complicated than the US military had expected.