More and more air forces around the world are relying on private sparring partners for training. Scott “Kidd” Poteet is head of US military programs at the enemy actor company Draken-International. We spoke to him about the development of the aggressor market, cost effects and ever stronger patterns in the “Red Air” fleets.
Mr. Poteet, enemy actor companies have recently experienced a massive boom, mainly for cost reasons. How much does this actually save the taxpayer?
Our contract support in ADAIR (Adversary Air) certainly results in savings of several hundred million dollars a year for the entire industry. This is also demonstrated by the fact that our company is now present at every “Red Flag” in Nellis and at ten other US bases in the USA and Alaska.
What exactly are the cost effects?
This is due to the fact that our services relieve the costly fleets of modern fighter jets such as the Eurofighter, Rafále or F-35 by 30 to 40 percent annually. In peacetime operations, which are always budget-relevant, the squadron commanders thus avoid hundreds of expensive flight hours to demonstrate operational conditions. At the same time, they reduce the wear and tear on operational aircraft that would otherwise have to compete against each other for training purposes. It is also important to bear in mind that in order to realistically convey tactical duel situations for just one young mission pilot – for example in a one-against-two scenario – as many as three aircraft have to take to the air. In addition, the use of different types also increases the degree of realism compared to always having to deal with the same patterns.
That sounds as if the sector is already well established in the day-to-day training operations of many air fleets?
In any case. We have pioneered the growing tactical air warfare training sector with more than 45,000 flying hours and 20 years of experience. The sector is very lively and is also expanding due to the cost advantages. Corona will slow this development down a little for the time being, but the “Red Air” business will still be a multi-billion market in the next five years. In Nellis alone, there are already 6,300 aggressor flight hours per year, but the market is also growing in Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. https://militaeraktuell.at/red-air-den-feind-auslagern/
Why have more and more powerful models like your Mirage F.1M and Cheetah or the F-16 appeared on Top Aces in the last year or two?
Because the simulation of today’s Russian or Chinese enemy patterns is no longer about dogfights as it was in “Top Gun”. It is much more about detection and sensor ranges, which the USAF wants to see used against its “Blue Force” aircraft from far over the horizon (note: we are talking about BVR – Beyond Visual Range). So of course we have to use modern models that can do this.
Where are these skills currently offered from the 4th generation onwards? And how many hours per day are involved?
In addition to our temporary assignments in Nellis, we currently offer our services on a permanent contractual basis from Holloman (New Mexico), Kelly Field (Texas), ANG-Kingsley (Oregon), Seymour Johnson (North Carolina) and Davis Monthan (Arizona). In terms of the number of deployments, we currently have up to 22 units per day, each lasting 90 minutes. There are precisely defined contract contents for each location.
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