Red Flag

F-22

Today Dave and I packed a lunch and set off for a most unusual lunch spot.  One that not everyone would find enjoyable, but we surely did.

our lunchtime view

other people joined us after awhile

We had quite a few people next to us but we didn't mind....we all evidently enjoyed the same things.

F-15

F-18

We ate lunch in the Jeep parked along Cheyenne Avenue across the street from the runways at Nellis Air Force Base.    Behind us were various businesses, a huge scrap yard, a septic tank company, a ready mix concrete business, and a tractor trailer driver training school.     We didn't mind one bit.    We were there to watch the flybys, the take offs and especially the landings of the awesomely powerful and incredibly loud Fighter planes that were taking part in Exercise Red Flag 19.2 at Nellis.

F-16
interesting camouflage colors...I wonder where it was from.

Exercise Red Flag is a two week, advanced aerial combat training exercise held  several times a year by the US Air Force.   Nellis AFB holds these sessions a couples times a year.  US and allied armed forces participate in realistic training exercises to improve their readiness and efficiency in combat situations.

 very bad photograph of a Eurofighter Typhoon
(a plane Dave had never heard of and one he had to do considerable research to identify)

No matter how you feel about wars and bombs and the need to be "ready and efficient", there is no denying the goosebumps these big guys produce as they roar so close over your head and land with a gentle touch on the tarmac in front of you.

F-16 from Belgium

do you see the crazy contrails left by these jets?