The 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron (4477 TES), known as the "Red Eagles", was a squadron in the United States Air Force that operated MiG-17s, MiG-21s and MiG-23s between 1977 and 1988.
The mission of the squadron, operating under project Constant Peg, was to expose the tactical air forces of the United States to the flight characteristics of fighter aircraft used by the Soviet Union and other adversary nations during the Cold War. During the course of its existence the squadron exposed approximately 6,000 aircrew of the United States Air Force, United States Navy, and United States Marine Corps to these aircraft types in a controlled training environment.
The last training sorties of the squadron were flown in 1988, however the declassified history of the squadron shows that it was not formally disbanded until July 1990.
While the squadron is currently inactive, operation of Soviet- and Russian-built aircraft types by the US continues, and aircrew have been observed wearing Red Eagles patches as recently as 2017.
History
The United States is known to have conducted test flying of Soviet-built aircraft for intelligence gathering and evaluation purposes dating back to the Yakovlev Yak-23 in 1953. This effort continued throughout the Cold War and into the 21st century, and while many projects remain classified, aircraft types including the Mikoyan MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-27 aircraft have been photographed in flight above the Nevada desert.
The first systematic evaluation of a Soviet-built aircraft in the United States was carried out on a MiG-21F-13 “Fishbed-E” under project Have Doughnut. This aircraft was acquired from Israel in 1967 following the defection of an Iraqi pilot to Israel in 1966, and was thoroughly evaluated at Groom Lake during the late 1960s.
Further aircraft were secretly acquired and studied during the late 1960s and early 1970s, with evaluation taking place at Groom Lake under the control of Air Force Systems Command. During this period each new aircraft to be made available was designated a specific project name in the “Have” series.
In 1970 the range of Soviet-built foreign materiel evaluation projects at Groom Lake was reorganised under the single umbrella project Have Glib. The 6512th Test Group at Edwards Air Force Base was designated the responsible test organisation, and a local detachment, the 6512th Test Squadron Special Projects Branch (known as the “Red Hats”) was formed to operate the Have Glib aircraft.
In 1973 Have Glib was redesignated as Have Idea. The Red Hats continued as the sole operators of Soviet-built aircraft at Groom Lake until 1977.
Origins of Constant Peg Experience from the Vietnam War showed that training in air-to-air tactics and weapons employment among frontline squadrons was not adequate to deal with the threat from North Vietnamese Air Force. The US Navy carried out a sweeping review of these deficiencies under the Ault Report, which along with the US Air Force’s Project Red Baron study led to a massive expansion of air-to-air training for aircrew. These studies also showed that US aircrew were not prepared for maneuvring combat with the smaller and lighter MiG-17s and MiG-21s supplied to North Vietnam by the Soviet Union, and that awareness of the capabilities of these adversary aircraft was lacking.
As the inventory of Soviet-built aircraft at Groom Lake grew during the 1970s, and as concerns around the possible loss of unique assets before intelligence capture could be completed were replaced by increased confidence in the maintainability and availability of these assets, it became possible to directly expose an increasing number of US Air Force and US Navy pilots to Soviet-built aircraft
Under Have Glib and Have Idea individual USAF Aggressor pilots were permitted to fly the MiGs at Groom Lake as part of their training, and USAF Fighter Weapons Instructor Course and USN Fighter Weapons School students were also allotted sorties against the MiGs to maximise their understanding of adversary aircraft. However, this training was limited by the number of available aircraft, and each training sortie for an operational pilot required the approval of Air Force Systems Command as administrative owner of the assets.
It was also recognised that while the aircraft used by Aggressor squadrons (primarily the A-4 to simulate the MiG-17 and the F-5 to simulate the MiG-21) were good representations of Soviet-built aircraft, they did not duplicate the performance of these aircraft in all regards. The MiG simulators also could not prepare pilots for the psychological shock of encountering an unfamiliar and exotic adversary aircraft for the first time, referred to as “buck fever”, and a group of Air Force officers briefed on the various exploitation programmes began privately discussing the possibility of enlarging the fleet of Soviet-built aircraft to support large-scale exposure to operational squadrons.
In late 1976 USAF Colonel Gail Peck, a veteran of Vietnam in the F-4 who had flown the MiG-17 and MiG-21 at Groom Lake and supported more widespread use of the aircraft, proposed that an Aggressor squadron of Soviet-built aircraft should be created for the express purpose of training front line squadrons. This idea won the support of USAF General Hoyt S. Vandenberg Jr, and resulted in the launch of project "Constant Peg," named after Vandenberg's callsign, "Constant," and Peck's wife, Peggy.
Establishment of the 4477th TEF and initial MiG fleet
The 4477th Test and Evaluation Flight was established by Tactical Air Command (TAC) on 1 April 1977 as part of the 57th Fighter Weapons Wing. The new organisation, named "Red Eagles" from its inception, would be dedicated to providing training exposures of Soviet-built fighter aircraft to front line US aircrew. The project would be funded jointly by the US Air Force and the US Navy, with pilots drawn from the US Air Force, US Navy, and US Marine Corps, and exposures would be provided to aircrew from all three services.
Two MiG-17s and two MiG-21s previously operated under Have Idea were transferred to the 4477th to support this mission.
Responsibility for evaluation of Soviet-built aircraft for intelligence purposes remained with the Red Hats under Air Force Systems Command. To reflect the refocusing of the Red Hats’ mission purely towards the study of these aircraft, and to recognise the increasing scale of this mission both in the US and around the world, the 6512th Test Squadron Special Projects Branch was elevated to squadron status with the activation of the 6513th Test Squadron in December 1977.
While work began to expand the inventory of flyable MiGs to support Constant Peg, the Red Eagles and the Red Hats shared the aircraft and facilities at Groom Lake. The first training sorties of the 4477th TEF were flown from Groom Lake in 1978
The two MiG-17s initially used in Constant Peg were the aircraft used in Have Ferry, originally sourced from Syria via Israel, and a MiG-17PF from an undetermined source.
The two MiG-21s initially used in Constant Peg were the Have Doughnut aircraft sourced from Iraq via Israel, and an aircraft assembled from a batch of MiG-21s sourced from Indonesia. Indonesia had been a client state of the Soviet Union during the 1960s, but following a change in government in 1967 in reaction to a Communist coup attempt, the two countries broke off relations and aircraft initially supplied by the Soviets were grounded for lack of spares. As the new President Suharto forged closer ties with the West, arrangements were made for Indonesia to transfer their fleet of MiG-21s to the US in exchange for military aid.
The condition of the MiG-21s sourced from Indonesia on receipt at Groom Lake was poor, with the aircraft having been neglected following their grounding. At least one aircraft eventually returned to flight was reported to have been recovered from a drainage ditch, having been immersed in water up to the canopy rails for several years. Nonetheless, at least five Indonesian MiG-21s were eventually returned to flight and put into service with the 4477th.
Move to Tonopah and fleet expansion In order to avoid infringing on the range of highly classified test programmes taking place at Groom Lake, Constant Peg required a dedicated base of operations. At a meeting between Gail Peck and Colonel Bobby Bond, then working for Air Force Systems Command in the Pentagon, Peck was briefed on the Have Blue stealth demonstrator programme and the likelihood of that programme developing into an operational but deeply secret aircraft, which eventually emerged as the F-117 Nighthawk under project Senior Trend. The men recognised that these two “black” Air Force programmes shared similar requirements for an isolated and highly secure operating base, and that to co-locate these projects would save on infrastructure costs. Following a search for suitable sites, the Tonopah Test Range airfield was selected as the home for both Constant Peg and Senior Trend. Owned and operated by the Atomic Energy Commission, Tonopah was ideally suited to the requirements of both projects, but would require extensive development to be made suitable for squadron-scale operations.
Development of the airfield took place through 1977 and 1978, with the 4477th TEF flying their first operational sorties from Tonopah in July 1979. By this time the fleet of available MiGs had increased to two MiG-17s and six MiG-21s, with the additional MiG-21s all having been rebuilt from examples delivered from Indonesia.
One MiG-17 was lost in a fatal accident following a spin in August 1979. Additional examples were sourced, but after another MiG-17 was destroyed after an engine failure during takeoff in April 1982, the type was retired from service.
Consolidation as 4477th TES and introduction of the MiG-23 On April 1st 1980, the 4477th Test and Evaluation Flight was administratively upgraded to the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron. The 4477th TES introduced the MiG-23 to their fleet in November 1980.
The MiG-23s used in CONSTANT PEG were primarily sourced from Egypt. As with Indonesia, Egypt had been a Soviet client state that pivoted towards the West following the death of Abdel Nasser and the succession of Anwar Sadat in 1970, making a large amount of Soviet materiel available for exploitation. Eighteen examples of the MiG-23, split between the MiG-23MS Flogger E (air-to-air version) and the MiG-23BN Flogger F (air-to-ground version), were acquired by the CIA in exchange for military aid and transported to the US. Individual examples were returned to flight for evaluation by the Red Hats, and ten Egyptian MiG-23s were put into service with the 4477th for use in Constant Peg.
One MiG-23 was lost in a fatal accident following an engine failure in 1982, and a second was lost following a spin in 1987 with the pilot ejecting safely. An additional MiG-23 was obtained from an unknown source in 1988 to replace the airframe lost in 1987.
MiG-21 fleet expansion with Chinese F-7B Between 1982 and 1984 a batch of nine Chengdu F-7B aircraft (a Chinese licence-built derivative of the MiG-21 also known as the Shenyang J-7B) was purchased from China during a period of military cooperation. Eight of these aircraft were used to supplement the Red Eagles’ fleet of Indonesian MiG-21s, and one was evaluated by the Red Hats at Groom Lake.
While there were detail differences between the MiG-21F-13 Fishbed-E and the F-7B, the appearance and performance of the two aircraft was extremely similar. The primary visual difference is that the MiG-21 used a single-piece, forward-hinging canopy, while the F-7B used a fixed windscreen with a canopy hinging to the rear.