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Equation

Equation

Lieutenant General
latenlazy said:
I suspect Red Sword is focused on offensive attack/strike missions, while blue shield is focused on area defense. Golden Dart is probably pure A2A combat.
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Aren't they all focused on both offensive and defensive strategies in some form or another? Even playing as an OPFOR there's a need to strategize on the opponents strength and weakness.
 
L

latenlazy

Brigadier
Equation said:
Aren't they all focused on both offensive and defensive strategies in some form or another? Even playing as an OPFOR there's a need to strategize on the opponents strength and weakness.
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Yes, but different scenarios/mission profiles I imagine. (Unhelpful answer, I know). I think with Red Sword the defense simulates a foreign power while the offense represents China, while in Blue Shield it's the other way around.
 
Deino

Deino

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latenlazy said:
I suspect Red Sword is focused on offensive attack/strike missions, while blue shield is focused on area defense. Golden Dart is probably pure A2A combat.
Click to expand...


And Golden Helmet for individual pilot air-to-air performance ? ... or is the Golden Helmet only the trophy for the winner of Golden Dart?
 
Blitzo

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latenlazy said:
I suspect Red Sword is focused on offensive attack/strike missions, while blue shield is focused on area defense. Golden Dart is probably pure A2A combat.
Click to expand...

I think one of tphuang's blog posts a few years back about air force training said that red sword is related to A2G/strike/sead while blue sword was related to air to air. I'm not sure if blue sword was replaced by blue shield in terms of name.

I'm also not really sure what golden helmet's equivalent in the west is -- it really sounds specifically like a way to choose "best" pilots in A2A.
And golden dart is even weirder, and actually is an exercise I haven't heard of it prior to those last few posts.
 
L

latenlazy

Brigadier
Bltizo said:
I think one of tphuang's blog posts a few years back about air force training said that red sword is related to A2G/strike/sead while blue sword was related to air to air. I'm not sure if blue sword was replaced by blue shield in terms of name.

I'm also not really sure what golden helmet's equivalent in the west is -- it really sounds specifically like a way to choose "best" pilots in A2A.
And golden dart is even weirder, and actually is an exercise I haven't heard of it prior to those last few posts.
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Well, if the goal of the war game is to practice offense, that would be strike/attack/SEAD, while if the goal of the war game is to practice defense, the focus would be more A2A, hence the offense/defense distinction I'm proposing.

EDIT: Just speculative theory on my part, but perhaps as the sophistication of these games increased, blue sword got divided into an A2A component of red sword and the A2A component of a more comprehensive area defense air exercise called blue shield? Maybe Golden Dart then becomes the successor to Blue Sword as the pure A2A exercise? Speculation on my part of course.
 
Blitzo

Blitzo

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latenlazy said:
Well, if the goal of the war game is to practice offense, that would be strike/attack/SEAD, while if the goal of the war game is to practice defense, the focus would be more A2A, hence the offense/defense distinction I'm proposing.

EDIT: Just speculative theory on my part, but perhaps as the sophistication of these games increased, blue sword got divided into an A2A component of red sword and the A2A component of a more comprehensive area defense air exercise called blue shield? Maybe Golden Dart then becomes the successor to Blue Sword as the pure A2A exercise? Speculation on my part of course.
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Sounds possible, but of course as you say it is speculation.

Another question I'm also interested in is how many red sword, blue shield, golden helmet and golden dart exercises are held per year.

I know US holds something like 3 red flags per year.
 
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