The Red Flag exercises, held periodically at the Nellis Air Force Base since 1975, are very realistic aerial war games. The purpose is to give pilots from the U.S., NATO and other allied countries an opportunity to practice and refine their skills for real combat situations. This includes the use of “enemy” hardware and live ammunition for bombing exercises within the Nellis complex. The exercises with flares and all kinds of aircraft can make a spectacular show, especially at night. There are usually two or three sorties per day (except on weekends): One or two sorties during daytime and one in the evening or at night. The night exercises usually inlude only one half of the daytime forces.

There are two teams, the good guys (Blue Team) and the aggressors (Red Team). The Red Team is composed of Nellis AFB-based pilots specially trained for this purpose, flying F-15 and F-16 aircraft. The Blue Team is composed of the various guest “players” in their native aircraft.

The Red Team sets up at the west side of the Nellis Ranges, in the Tolicha Peak area between Tonopah and Beatty. The Blue Team sets up in the east, over Delamar Dry Lake east of Alamo, which the pilots call Texas Lake because of its shape. The objective for the Blue Team is to destroy targets in Ranges 74 thru 76, southeast of the Tonopah Test Range. The Red Team of course try their best to keep them from getting there. Both teams usually meet in the airspace west and north of Rachel, where they engage in very realistic dogfights. Railroad Valley, and especially the old Cedar Pipeline Ranch is an excellent place to watch the air show.Typically the first two of four annual Flag exercises are U.S. only, while the others include coalition forces. The list of foreign countries that have participated in the past includes: Argentinia, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, NATO, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom and Venezuela. The exercises last two weeks. Often two exercises are combined back-to-back, for a four week period.

The 343 Sqn is an independent operational unit which consists of two combat flights with F-16 Blk 52+ aircrtaft.
It comes under the 115 Combat Wing both organizationally and operationally and it is based in Souda airport.

In September 1955, the 343 Sqn was established at Elefsis airbase, with F-86E Sabre aircraft in day interception role.

In November 1956 the Squadron is redeployed to Tanagra airbase where it stayed until May 1958. Thereafter it redeploys to N. Anchialos airbase.

In 1961 the F-86E aircraft were replaced with F-86D and the squadron role is changed to “All weather Interception”.

In March 1966, it is equipped with the F-5A/B Freedom Fighter aircraft and is charged with the “Day Intercept” as the primary role and the “Fighter-Bomber” as the secondary.

In July 1974 the Squadron returns to 113 CW where it stays until June 1985, when it redeployed to N. Anchialos airbase.

In July 1987 returns to 113CW where it stayed until March 2001 when its operation is suspended.

On July 21st 2003, the 343 Sqn reentered operational status with F-16 Block 52+ C/D aircraft, at Souda airbase.

343 Squadron “Star” participated to Exercise Red Flag 09-1 from 10/20/2008 to 10/31/2008. Participation from other countries is shown in the following table:

Role	Aircraft	Home Base
Red Team Air	F-15 / F-16C	64 and 65 Aggressor Squadrons Nellis AFB, NV
Blue Team Air	F-15C	18 Wing, Kadena AB, Japan
Air-to-Ground	A-10C F-16CJ EF-18M F-16CJ F-15E	355 Wing, Davis-Monthan AFB Greek AF, 343rd Fighter Sq., Souda AB Crete Spanish AF, 151st Fighter Sq., Zaragoza AB Singapore AF, 425th Fighter Sq., Luke AFB 4 Fighter Wing, Seymour-Johnson AFB
Command & Control Reconnaissance	E-3 E-8 RQ-1 U-2	552nd ACW, Tinker AFB 116 ACW, Robins AFB Creech AFB Beale AF
Refueling	KC-135 KC-135 KC-135	128 Air Refueling Wing, Wisconsin 185 Air Refueling Wing, Iowa 127 Air Refueling Wing, Michigan

Patches from the participation of 343 Squadron :

Pictures from journey of Hellenic Air Force F-16 block 52+ of 343 Squadron to and from USA.