Zodiac 5: Inside Draken’s Red Air at Cobra Warrior

As part of Exercise Cobra Warrior 26-2, MS&T’s Dim Jones was given the opportunity to observe the aerial action at first hand during a visit to Draken Europe’s base at Teesside International Airport.

The exercise day begins with a ‘Snap-In’ briefing for all aircrew, covering domestic subjects of relevance to all crews, such as weather, approach aid serviceability and diversion airfields. This is followed by a mission brief for the 5 FA20s and 4 L-159 Honey Badgers scheduled to take part in the day’s activity. This comprehensive brief, delivered like the Snap-In by Steve, covers: the Red Force mission line-up - details of Draken aircraft and other ‘unfriendly’ assets, including what aircraft and tactics they are tasked to simulate; the opposing Blue forces; timings and communications; exercise areas, height sanctuaries and navigation reference points; and the mission scenario and flight profiles, which have been devised by the Cobra Warrior exercise directing staff at RAF Waddington, and which includes a Red Force team manned by Draken personnel. While the exercise endeavours to be as realistic as possible, safety is a major consideration; in each height block of 10K’, Blue forces operate between 9000’ and 3000’, and Red between 5and 8, this guaranteeing separation of at least 1000’. I am programmed to fly with the crew of Zodiac 5 – Captain CJ, First Officer Matt and EWO Phil – who will team up for the mission with 2 of the Honey Badgers.

This is Week 2 of 3 of Exercise Cobra Warrior, of which more elsewhere, and all exercise players are live. Blue Forces comprise Typhoons and F-35s in both air-to-air and air-to-ground packages, the latter with targets in northern England and the Scottish Borders. Air-to-air tactics are expected to include fighter escort and sweep. An A400M Atlas transport will simulate insertion of Special Forces. Red Air includes several formations of Typhoon and F-35, and a Dutch Navy Karel Doorman Class frigate (HNLMS Van Amstel) will assist with the air picture. Ground Control Intercept (GCI) for both forces is provided by the CRC at RAF Boulmer, the Red Force callsign being ‘Lapwing’. Air Picture information is normally passed by means of ‘Broadcast Control’, referencing information to a prebriefed geographical position called a ‘Bullseye’, but occasionally by BRA reference (Bearing, Range and Altitude) from a particular aircraft. Zodiac 5 is simulating a SU-34 ‘Fullback’, with representative tactics and weapons. The FA20 is a good replicator of the SU-34, although unable to accelerate to the same degree without afterburning engines, but its potent Electronic Attack (EA) suite will present problems of its own for Blue. The Red Force task is to establish a dominant presence in the airspace, harass and degrade Blue Air, and attrit Blue Force players if the opportunity presents itself; our specific task is to provide cover for Pirate 11 and 12, who are simulating MiG-29 Fulcrums.  Red Force Typhoons and F-35s are simulating SU-30/35 Flanker.

The FA20 looks like a bizjet – indeed, it is a Dassault Falcon 20 – but the ECM pods hung under the wing and the undignified cabin access through a freight door rapidly dispel that notion. CJ is no Captain Speaking, Matt is no hapless co-pilot, and Phil – despite an exemplary safety brief - is emphatically not Cabin Crew. It is worth recounting their diverse experience, since it is representative of Draken’s operation. CJ started out in the Royal Navy until an inconsiderate government scrapped the Harrier GR9, following which he flew F-18s with the Canadian Air Force and then Typhoons with the RAF. While contemplating what he might do sitting behind a desk on his next tour, the offer of employment with Draken arose, flying L-159 and then FA-20; for this role he holds an ATPL and the full range of Draken operational qualifications. Matt is a former DA42 flight instructor, has no military experience, and has been with the company for 8 months; he holds a CPL(IR), has completed his Line Flying Under Supervision (LIFUS) training – the equivalent of Limited Combat Ready (LCR) - and is now in a period of consolidation before starting a work-up to make him a fully-trained Red Air pilot. Phil is a mega-experienced former Tornado GR4 back-seater and EWI.

The FA20 is an ageing airframe with an analog cockpit but, due to its EW fit and the addition of some more modern avionics, it can give a good account of itself and provide valuable and realistic training for the opposition. The L-159, a product of the Czech company Aero Vodochody which produced the majority of Soviet trainers during the Warsaw Pact era, is also subsonic but more agile; as someone who has experienced a one-on-one at close range with a real Honey Badger (aka Ratel), I can vouch for the fact that there is nothing sweet about it. In its simulated role as MiG-29, the L-159 has a simulated Beyond-Visual-Range (BVR) missile capability. Its primary aim, however - hopefully assisted by some protection from us – is to close to the merge and engage Blue aircraft in a visual fight.

My berth for take-off and landing, for safety and CofG considerations, is in the cabin, where Phil explains the functions of the various navigation and EW displays available to him. For most of the sortie, I am sat on the jump-seat between the pilots. The integral aircraft systems are supplemented for each crew member by removable tablets, which can contain classified data. We and our Honey Badgers, Pirate 11 and 12, are assigned to Block 2, and Zodiac 5’s Combat Air Patrol (CAP) height is 27000’. This is good for ensuring a full EA coverage, but not so much for manoeuvrability. Unlike a normal bizjet, our standard turns on CAP are at 45oangle-of-bank (AOB) and, when engaged, 60o AOB and 2G. The threat axis is from the south-east, and our start point on the coast between Montrose and Aberdeen.  The weather is ‘clear-and-a-million’ and, from our CAP height, we can see the north of England and the Moray Firth.

Once on CAP, and talking to Lapwing, we are asked to contact Van Amstel. A minor problem presents itself, in that we can talk to Lapwing and Van Amstel, but they cannot talk to each other. We act as a radio relay, which further complicates a very busy R/T, with inputs from multiple sources, in addition to which we have internal communication between the crew. For today’s mission, Matt is the handling pilot, and CJ non-handling, taking care of the radios, making sure that we are in the right place at the right time heading in the right direction, acting as the tactical director for our aircraft and imparting his considerable expertise to Matt. In his spare time, he gets to talk to me, explaining what is going on. The cockpit is an extremely busy place – one-armed paper-hangers spring to mind. The FA20 has no air-to-air radar or Link 16 picture, so we are using the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) to give us an air picture, albeit allowing for the fact that the TCAS gives a 360o picture, whereas a radar would not. The Honey Badgers have their Grifo-L radars, Radar Warning Receivers (RWR) and ADS-B, a system which gives information about squawking aircraft and partially replicates Link 16.

Van Amstel starts the broadcast, and it is immediately apparent that the controller has done this before. The Karel Doorman class are multi-purpose frigates, so air defence may not even be his day job, and the ship has other concurrent tasks in the exercise scenario. The exercise phases commence, and we react to the various threats presented by the broadcast and the TCAS, deploying our various pieces of kit to replicate the electronic signature of a specific threat, by emitting specific waveforms that are matched to the customer’s mission data. The emissions can be adapted in real time to change what threat type we are replicating, and what their sensors would in real life be doing.

Opportunities arise to take Beyond-Visual-Range (BVR) missile shots, and Phil uses his kit to simulate the emissions such an attack would present to the enemy. It is apparent when they take evasive action and, based on range and timing, this evasion is judged to be effective – and the shot ‘trashed’ - or not. Inevitably, we or our Red Force colleagues attract some incoming fire; when this happens, a Range Technical Officer (RTO) relays the assessment of the shot from Blue air, applies a probability of success, and thus determines the result, which is then broadcast to the Red player. This process uses CUBIC’s SPEAR system, which is part of Draken’s PHANTOM SKY range control product. This system fuses a number of different inputs to provide a 3D representative map of the fight in real time, which the RTO can view remotely from RAF Waddington, or anywhere there is a SPEAR terminal. If a kill is judged, there is then a procedure by which the ‘killed’ aircraft clears the exercise area for a certain time, following which it is deemed to be ‘regenerated’, and can take part in the subsequent phases, thus maximizing the training value.

So the exercise progresses, and Zodiac 5 performs its planned tasks. There are brief glimpses of Pirate 11 and 11, but it is only the occasional momentary sight of distant contrails which signals that there is an enemy out there. Red Force aircraft will do their best to survive and will take shots when offered, but expect to be killed; fulfilling the exercise aims is paramount, and there is no ‘ego’ involved. Alas, the fuel gauges eventually indicate that discretion is the better part of valour, and we recover with very little to spare, another opportunity for CJ to pass on his knowledge of the aircraft’s performance to Matt. My only regret is that I have not spent enough time in the back with Phil and his electronic box of tricks.

Once on the ground, and remedial coffee consumed, we assemble for the mission debrief, again comprehensive and conducted extremely competently by Steve, with inputs from the various players. I am amazed to be told that Steve has no military experience; I have sat through briefings less well conducted at Red Flag. It is many years since I was part of an operational environment like this – yet, even now, I am surrounded by some familiar faces - but the atmosphere of joint endeavour and professionalism is instantly recognisable. Draken pride themselves on providing value for money to the UKMoD, and ‘punching above their weight’. On this evidence, those assessments are well-founded.

It was also a lot of fun.