In pictures: Stunning photos of RAF aircraft taking part in major exercise in US
Royal Air Force pilots have been pictured tearing through the skies during a major air combat exercise in the US.
Stunning photos show RAF Typhoons, F-35s and Voyagers taking part in the biggest Exercise Red Flag to date - the US' most important annual air combat training mission.
The exercise has previously been run over the Nevada Test and Training Range - an area of 12,000 miles of airspace and 2.9m acres of land. This year, training areas in Utah and California have been added, as well as missions being flown out over the Californian Pacific Coast.
About 300 RAF personnel are taking part alongside members of the US Air Force, US Navy, US Marine Corps and the Royal Australian Air Force.
The RAF's Combat Air Force Commander, Air Commodore Howard Edwards, said: "This is the most important exercise that the RAF participates on each year. There are a number of reasons for this.
"First and foremost, the scale and complexity of the exercise tests all of the participants in a way that just does not exist anywhere else in the world. The original intent of the exercise was to seek to replicate the first 10 combat missions a fast jet aircrew will face in combat, as to survive those missions meant, they were more likely to survive sustained combat missions.
"Now the exercise has developed and evolved to what it represents today and recognises the threats that have evolved and so the exercise has evolved to represent them."
Click through the image gallery above to see RAF, US and Australian aircraft taking part in the training.
Forces News cameras have been in the US for Exercise Red Flag. Full report coming soon.
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