The Red Flag exercise is a 2 week long American advance aerial combat training exercise held at and around at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada and Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, the latter location being known as 'Red Flag– Alaska'. The exercise was the successor to the previous Cope Thunder exercise series in the Western Pacific and Alaska. For added reality only live ammunition was used for the bombing exercises within the adjacent Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR).