"You have to extensively mission plan for an exercise like this," said Capt. Nate Aysta, 555th FS pilot who coordinated all the mission planning, briefing, flying, and execution of the mission. "The pilots have to plan on how to get to the airspace, how to defeat the enemy aircraft, how to find and destroy any targets on the ground without getting shot down by surface-to-air threats and finally, get back to friendly territory." 

Ensuring the pilots' mission is successful takes the combined coordination of numerous units on base. 

"The 31st Operations Support Squadron weather flight briefs us on the expected weather for the mission, and depending on what they brief, impacts how we fight the 'war,'" Captain Aysta said. "Our [Intelligence] folks also brief us on the simulated war and what threats we will be facing." 

In order for the fighter pilots to accomplish their mission in the air, they have to rely heavily on the maintenance Airmen on the ground who maintain and keep each jet mission-ready. 

"The maintainers have to get the proper amount of aircraft ready with the correct configurations and be able to launch a large number of aircraft in a short amount of time," Captain Aysta said. "The air traffic control tower and the radar approach facility Airmen also get a chance to control a large amount of aircraft in a short amount of time." 

Pilots participating in the LFE also have the opportunity to practice mid-air refueling during the mission. 

"We coordinated an air refueling tanker out of England to give us gas while airborne," said Captain Aysta, who has participated in about 10 Red Flag-Alaska large force exercises in the past three years. 

Red Flag-Alaska, a series of Pacific Air Forces commander-directed field training exercises for U.S. forces, provides joint offensive counter-air, interdiction, close air support, and large force employment training in a simulated combat environment. 

"The skills gained through RF-A transfer directly to planning these large force missions here," Captain Aysta said. 

To create a more realistic fighting scenario, Captain Aysta invited Typhoon Eurofighter aircraft from Grosseto to help improve war-fighting skills between coalition forces. 

"Joint training like this is critical to our mission because we may deploy with these units in the future," Captain Aysta said. "If we can iron out any differences here at home, we'll work that much more efficiently in a deployed area of responsibility."

31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy