 Flight Lieutenant Bricewood with the 90th Fighter Squadron 3rd Wing at J-Bear in Alaska Spelled B-R-Y-C-E-W-O-O-L-L-E-T-T As part of Red Flag Alaska 22-3 we're primarily executing air squads So offensive counter air or defensive counter air Practicing how to protect our strike or our airlift assets To get them into a hostile contested environment At Red Flag we fly at the J-Box so the Joe Pacific Alaska range complex And it consists of both an air-to-air and a surface-to-air threatening environment So we can practice against both surface-to-air missiles as well as hostile fighters Originally I'm from the Royal Australian Air Force so I flew F-18 Hornets back in Australia I was selected to conduct the exchange program Here at the 90th Fighter Squadron we've had an embedded Australian fighter pilot Flying with us all the way back to 1942 So over the years we continually rotate an Australian exchange pilot into Alaska To fly with the guys here and then there's a reciprocal exchange Where a USAF fighter pilot goes down to Australia and flies with our squadrons down there The tour itself is three years so I'm currently two years into a three-year exchange So I've got about 12 months to go, right ahead and back down to Australia The exchange is a great opportunity to fly with the USAF Learn about the way that they attack problems, the way that they do business And then hopefully on the other hand they can learn the way that Australia approaches tactical problems And overall improve our understanding of each other's operations So if we were ever called upon to actually do anything for real We would have a better understanding And hopefully a better ability to actually achieve mission success Red Flag is a great opportunity to actually get Australian squadrons in Alaska To fly directly with our US counterparts against a threat realistic mission set So me being embedded here at the 90th Fighter Squadron It's awesome to see the Australian squadrons in Alaska And how well we're able to integrate and then operate with our US counterparts On a much smaller and shorter timeline We're able to learn how the US approaches tactical problems We're able to show the US how we approach tactical problems But Red Flag only being two weeks long There's a limited scope to actually be able to do that So with the exchange program, with me being here for three years Fully embedded in a US Fighter Squadron It's an awesome opportunity to actually really fundamentally understand How the US Air Force does business so we can better operate in the future I get to fly this beast which is pretty awesome So I flew Hornets back in Australia, the F-18 It was a fourth generation fighter aircraft So being able to come here and fly the F-22 The world's first fifth generation aircraft It's a really awesome experience and unbelievable opportunity Alaska has been awesome so like I said The 90th Fighter Squadron has had Australian exchange pilots For decades previous to me So arriving in Alaska, everyone's been extremely friendly They're used to having Aussies around the squadron And everyone's been super, super welcoming So it's really made Alaska feel like home And made us feel very welcome and part of the team here at JBA The E-7 was one of the first airborne command and control aircraft That employed an electronically scanned radar Which gives the aircraft a significant number of performance advantages Over traditionally or traditional mechanically scanned radars So we're here to provide airborne command and control To each of the red flag mission serials And in doing so it's our job to basically Detect the airborne picture, the posture of the adversary aircraft And provide that information to the blue fighter aircraft Or the blue package aircraft By both voice channels and digital channels Australia and the US have a very long and deep history together We know each other very well We share very similar values and cultures So it really is very easy, the sincere answer there We nearly speak the same language So there's a little bit of 5% of difference there And so that's why red flag is important Because throughout the planning and execution process There's just a couple of things we do slightly differently Certain words or certain ideas have slightly different meanings So it's important to understand those differences So that if we're operating in a contingency together We really understand where each of us is coming from So that's a lot of the benefit that comes from this exercise In addition to just the incredible training opportunities We get from operating in large force employment activities Just with such a large scale of resources and aircraft Red flag is designed and intended to be a very complex And intense iteration So compared to the sort of normal, lower scale training That we do day to day back home And much more complex Many, many more aircraft and assets Both on the air and in the ground And a large group of separate teams working together So it's quite a complex and long planning process So typically for each mission The crews will spend a whole day in planning Which each of the different package leads Taking care of their elements And then those elements being integrated together To conduct the whole mission the next day So compared to normal day to day training Significantly more complex And a significantly higher tier of training available So most of the crews when they come to an exercise Such as red flag they'll do some work up training at home That will be both airborne and simulator based training So we have a number of simulators at home That work for both the front end, the pilots And the mission crew who work at the back end And so we all start to do typical serials That are similar to what those crews are expecting To experience at red flag itself So as much as possible we tend to pre-prime them And in that sense they're prepared to get much more value Out of the live activity when it starts It's simply a privilege to be here and partake in this activity There's red flag Alaska is one of a suite of activities That we partake in with the USAF in the Pacific region And red flag Alaska is a perennial favourite It's a magnificent exercise and a fantastic spot And the weather is normally a little bit nicer than this