The flight of two Soviet-made MiGs with two F-22 fighters over a US air base

On Thursday, Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada witnessed an unusual scene that many will find strange.

The Soviet MiG fighters that ended up in the United States Air Force Museum
The F-35A of the 65th AGRS: US stealth fighters that pretend to be Russian and Chinese fighters

Over the US Air Force (USAF) base, two US F-22 Raptor stealth fighters were seen flying in formation alongside two Soviet-made MiG fighters. The scene was captured in this photo by William R. Lewis posted by DVIDShub.net. All four aircraft were flying in the typical wedge formation.

Curiously, leading the formation was a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 "Fishbed" with red Soviet stars on its wings. Next to it, as seen in this enlarged photo, was a MiG-29 "Fulcrum" in black, grey and white camouflage.

DVIDShub.net posted this photo of a MiG-29 taxiing at Nellis AFB before takeoff. It is one of two MiG-29s purchased by US company Ravn Aerospace from Kyrgyzstan in 1996.

This flight was a USAF tribute to Colonel Gaillard R. Peck Jr., better known as Gail Peck, who flew F-4 Phantom II fighters during the Vietnam War. Peck (seen below) was assigned in 1972 to the Nellis AFB Fighter Weapons School, the US Navy's Top Gun team in the USAF.

Peck was the creator of the Constant Peg (CP) program to improve the training of Navy and Air Force pilots in aerial combat. This program used two Soviet-made MiG-17 and MiG-21 fighters, some of them Syrian fighters obtained through Israel. A little-known fact is that the Air Force operated a total of 26 MiGs (MiG-17, MiG-21 and MiG-23) during the Cold War, both in evaluation roles and as aggressor aircraft for training pilots in aerial combat tactics.

These aircraft were often decorated like Soviet aircraft, with red stars. The American MiGs were operated by the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron (4477 TES), nicknamed the Red Eagles. This unit was based at the famous Area 51 in Groom Lake, Nevada. Colonel Peck was the first commander of this unit. Below these lines we see two USAF F-5s flying alongside a MiG-17 and a MiG-21 of the 4477 TES in 1979. Above these lines we see the photo of a MiG-21F-1 of the 4477 TES in the 1980s.

Colonel Peck, nicknamed “Bandit 1,” retired in 1988, after amassing more than 5,000 flight hours in the T-33, T-38, F-4, RF-4, F-5, F-15, MiG-17, and MiG-21 (an unusual track record) and after 26 years of service in the USAF. Peck passed away on October 10, 2024. Rest in peace.

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Photos: U.S. Air Force.