[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]As 60 enemy fighters closed in on a US Air Force 4th Generation fighter aircraft, blinding the jet with electronic warfare attacks, an experienced pilot faced unseen life threatening attackers closing in -- during an air-combat Red Flag exercise closely replicating actual warfare scenarios.
[/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)][/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]Yet, in a life-saving flash, the endangered 4-th pilot was told to “turn around” by an F-35 operating in the vicinity who radioed an instant warning. The 5th-Gen, multi-role stealth fighter then used its long-range sensors and weapons to “kill” the enemy aircraft, according to an Air Force news report.
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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)][/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]Air Force Col. Joshua Wood, 388th Operations Group Commander was part of the exercise.
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[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)][/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]“I’ve never seen anything like it before. My wingman was a brand new F-35A pilot, seven or eight flights out of training. He gets on the radio and tells an experienced, 3,000 hour pilot in a fourth-generation aircraft. ‘Hey bud, you need to turn around. You’re about to die, There’s a threat off your nose,’” Wood explained in the service report.[/COLOR]