A member of No. 4 Squadron Combat Control Team on an MV-850 quadbike during an airfield survey on a dry lake bed in the Nevada Test and Training Range. The Quadbike is used to traverse distances around an airfield quickly during survey missions in the field. Photo by Corporal Brenton Kwaterski.

4 Squadron’s tit-freezing para jump

11/02/2017 Posted by Brian Hartigan 4499 Views 0 Comments

Members of No. 4 Squadron Combat Control Team and colleagues from the Royal Air Force (RAF) parachuted into a dry lake bed in the Nevada Test and Training Range during Exercise Red Flag 17-01.

The mission was to test that the lake bed was safe for a C-130J Hercules to land on.

CAPTION: A member of No. 4 Squadron Combat Control Team on an MV-850 quadbike during an airfield survey on a dry lake bed in the Nevada Test and Training Range. The Quadbike is used to traverse distances around an airfield quickly during survey missions in the field. Photo by Corporal Brenton Kwaterski.

Thanks to elevation and the weather, the airmen jumped from the Hercules into a -20C slipstream.

The 4 Squadron detachment is part of a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) contingent deployed to Nevada for Exercise Red Flag 17-1, where they train in the world’s most complex air combat environment.

Alongside counterparts from United States and United Kingdom, approximately 200 RAAF personnel either supported or participated in missions involving up to 100 aircraft, flying over 31,000 square kilometres of the Nevada desert.

RAAF Contingent Commander and Director of the Exercise Red Flag 17-1 Combined Air and Space Operations Centre, Group Captain Stuart Bellingham said the Red Flag training environment was unmatched in its complexity and realism.