4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron (4477 TES) Red Eagles

The United States 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron (4477 TES) under the claimant of the Tactical Air Command was a product of Project Constant Peg, a unit created to expose the tactical air forces to the flight characteristics of fighter aircraft used by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Secretly operating from the Tonopah Test Range, in Nevada the squadron known as the Red Eagles operated Soviet MiG-17s, MiG-21s and MiG-23s between 1977 and 1988 to train the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps pilots and weapon systems officers in air combat tactics against these foreign aircraft. The Red Eagles revitalized the art of dogfighting, bringing fundamental changes in US air combat tactics that played a significant part in the Air Force’s Red Flag program and the US Navy’s Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI), more popularly known as TOPGUN.

For the 4477th TES at Tonopah being instrumental in the re-development of dissimilar air combat training (DACT) methods developed after the end of the Vietnam War, the Red Eagles earned their place in the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame class of 2018.