“The Nellis Air Force Base has an operation called “Red Flag” it is the Air Force’s premier air-to-air combat training exercise. Participants often include both US and allied nations’ combat air forces. The exercise gives pilots the experience of mulitple, intensive air combat sorties in the safety of a training environment.”

Red Flag is scheduled for Jan. 23 -Feb. 3, 2012.

This is why you have heard rumblings throughout Enterprise. The flight pattern for this goes over Modena. The noise is usually in the day and then about 11:00pm at night..

Some great things to read about the Red Flag mission

follow this link below to their twitter page also to see great photos and quick updates
http://twitter.com/nellisafb

“Release Number: 010112

1/10/2012 – NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. – — Southern Nevada residents may notice increased military aircraft activity as the Air Force conducts Red Flag 12-2 Jan. 23 – Feb. 3, 2012.

Red Flag is a realistic combat training exercise involving the air forces of the United States and its allies. The exercise is hosted north of Las Vegas on the Nevada Test and Training Range–the U.S. Air Force’s premier military training area with more than 12,000 square miles of airspace and 2.9 million acres of land. With 1,900 possible targets, realistic threat systems and an opposing enemy force that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world, Nellis and the NTTR are the home of a “peacetime battlefield,” providing combat air forces with the ability to train to fight together, survive together and win together.

The 414th Combat Training Squadron is responsible for executing Red Flag and the exercise is just one of a series of advanced training programs administered at Nellis and on the NTTR by organizations assigned to the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center.

Throughout the Red Flag exercise, more than 90 aircraft are scheduled to depart Nellis twice a day, around noon and again around 6 p.m. Aircraft may remain in the air for up to four hours. The flying times are scheduled to accommodate the other flying missions at Nellis and provide Red Flag participants with valuable training in planning and executing a wide-variety of combat missions.

The exercise will include units from:
Nevada, Colorado, South Dakota, Louisiana, Utah, California, Republic of Korea, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Massachusetts and Oklahoma flying aircraft including the F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, E-3 Sentry, B-1 Lancer, and KC-135 Stratotanker.

In addition to U.S. aircraft, the Saudi Royal Air Force and the Republic of Korea will participate with their nations’ F-15 aircraft.

For more information about Red Flag, call the Nellis Public Affairs Office at (702) 652-2750 or go to http://www.nellis.af.mil/redflag-nellis/.

NOTE TO MEDIA: Nellis will hold a Red Flag Media Day Jan. 31, 2012. Outlets interested in attending the media day can email your name, date of birth, media outlet represented and coverage goals for Red Flag 2-12 to 99abw (dot) pacurrent (at) nellis (dot) af (dot) mil no later than Jan. 22, 2012. International Media must also submit nation of origin and passport number. Media requests submitted after Jan. 23, 2012, will not be facilitated.”

Full link here for article above

Link to Nellis Air Force Base website below

Nellis

Here is another site which is quite a good read about how the training really works. “War Games”

a great hour long youtube video about “Redflag”