20th, 96th Bomb Squadrons team-up to participate in Virtual Flag exercise

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Joseph A. Pagán Jr.
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  In an effort to sharpen their combat skills, aircrew from the 20th and 96th Bomb Squadrons participated together in Virtual Flag 15-1 here, Feb. 18 to 26.

Virtual Flag is a real-time tactical-to-operational level exercise using air, land, space, cyber and maritime distributed scenarios operated by the Distributed Mission Operations Center based out of Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

"Virtual Flag allows for integration and the experience to reach out to the rest of the combat Air Force assets using simulators," said Capt. Jordan Filer, 96th BS weapons officer. "We can train right here from our home station without any TDY and flying costs."

Throughout the exercise, the 20th and 96th BS were able to work together via a simulator with other services from around the world.

"Overall, the training objectives we had was for aircrew from both squadrons to walk away with a better understanding of multiservice capabilities," said Capt. Phillip Perry, 20th BS weapons officer. "That's what was great with Virtual Flag 15-1, there was a large Navy aspect. We wanted to get aircrew members the experience of different services and how they operate, as well as include other platforms within the Air Force."

Virtual Flag takes 90 days to plan, is held quarterly and the participants always change. However, for the first time, both squadrons were able to work together to provide a unique experience.

"This exercise was a joint interaction of both squadrons from the 2nd Operations Group," said Filer. "This is one of the better exercises I've been a part of where we've really seen both squadrons actively working together to represent the group."

The squadrons have always had a competitive rivalry, but working on Virtual Flag together brought them a little closer and allowed everyone to get training and exposure, Filer continued.

While both squadrons participated, the 20th BS took the lead in regards to making the event as real as possible.

"What the 20th did was set the precedent of taking the crews and treating them like we were on a temporary duty," said Filer. "The experience of going out and doing your job is what they tried to create here. If we are going to do this exercise and get the best training out of it, we need to treat it as a deployment or TDY."

Supporting their idea, Capt. Erin McCabe, 96th BS weapons officer added that, "Being removed away from the other players is very close to how we will be operating in a real world environment. We'll not be stationed co-located; we'll be flying a long distance, operating, and then coming back to land. There are hurdles associated with that and by practicing now, we figure out how to overcome them."

Despite not being able to fly the aircraft in real space, Virtual Flag allows for better opportunities.

"The nice thing about the exercise is that you can put new people in there and get exposure to a Red Flag concept before flying with real iron in the air," said McCabe.

Red Flag is held at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., their airspace is only so big and with this operation, DMOC can expand this to an entire country, added Perry.

Virtual Flag continues to grow and prove to adversaries that the Air Force, its sister services and allies, are continuously training and ready at a moment's notice to complete any mission, anytime...anywhere!