Air Combat Basics

[FastCargo 412]

Tactics 101 - Introduction and Lag Pursuit

 

by Ed "Skater" Lynch

 

Well, it’s been a long time coming, so let’s not waste any time and get started.

 

First lets get some of the acronyms that will be used here out of the closet, and into the open, in a "don’t ask don’t tell" kind of way. More will be added to this list as the discussion continues.

 

In this discussion we will discuss ways to use basic and familiar maneuvers in order to achieve a positive outcome. In other words, bandit dead, not you. Most of you will have used these maneuvers before, but they will opened up in more detail, and in a slightly humorous manner.

 

ACM: Air Combat Maneuvering - The science of maneuvering your fighter in such a way as to be efficient in using g, time, energy, maneuverability, and weapons to achieve a favorable position and outcome on your bandit. Everything else is nonsense.

 

BFM: Basic Fighter Maneuvers - This is the basis for all maneuvering. Turning, climbing, and diving are all BFM moves.

 

DLO: Desired Learning Objective - The basis of the discussion, a learning point. The goal of the current lesson.

 

Lesson One - 29 JUN 98 - Using the Lag Turn to Fry Chicken

 

The Lag Turn is one of the most basic of all fighter maneuvers. Let’s now discuss how you got here, and why. Basically, while turning your fighter in a combat situation, you are trying to achieve one goal, destruction of the enemy aircraft. To do this, you need to put your nose on the bandit, within weapon parameters, and turn the lights on. When trying to accomplish this, you are usually turning in one plane or another, and so is the bandit, unless he is a masochist, in which case Tactics 101 is of no use to you.

 

While turning to achieve a nose-on conversion you will be in one of three types of turns. For this discussion, and since this is what you will be doing, we will call it pursuit. Sounds more fighter-like. We like that. There is Lag Pursuit, Lead Pursuit, and Pure Pursuit.

 

Describing Lag Pursuit is a little difficult, but try to imagine that you are in a turn slightly below and behind your bandit. This is the most common Lag Pursuit position. Let’s examine the virtues of the Lag Pursuit…

You are behind the bandit

The bandit is not behind you

You are a hop, skip, and a jump from bandit bar-b-q

Bandit’s look better through the front of the canopy

You are in the universally recognized best position for bandit bird flipping

 

Ok, enough brevity, let’s talk business...

 

Lag is mainly used to maintain position on the bandit in order to convert to a nose-on position to deploy weapons. While trying to convert to this nose-on position, there are a few things to consider. One, you do not want to expend all remaining energy in order to put the nose on the bandit, fire your load, and have no energy left to maneuver defensively or offensively after the kill. The goal is to stay in lag long enough to exploit a mistake made in desperation by the bandit, killing him, while retaining enough energy to fly defensively against any inbound bogey’s, and/or offensively against any other hapless bandits. Patience is a virtue here, but don’t plan on moving in. Fighter combat is most often brutally quick. You want to stay only long enough to efficiently maneuver for a kill, without getting killed in the process. Look for an opening that will allow you to maneuver the nose onto the bandit with little effort and expended energy from your current position. Usually if you are stuck in lag pursuit, the bandit will attempt to reverse his plane of motion, to draw you into a scissors, which should present you with a brief snap-shot opportunity, or to change his plane of motion (i.e. horizontal to vertical), which will lower his energy state and may allow you a brief sight picture. Should you get this opportunity (usually only from green or inexperienced human or AI pilots), FLAME ON! Because you won’t usually get this gift again. If you don’t, then it is time to hunker down, and try something different, because you are in for a fight.

 

You also want to stay aware of the tactical picture unfolding around you. This is known as Situational Awareness. Remember to always provide yourself with a planned route of disengagement. This is more commonly known as your Escape Window. If everything is not going well, and you are in danger of having a nose conversion on you, or you see bandit buddies closing in, it is time to use this window to get out of the fight. Also, you don’t want a bandit sneaking up and whacking you while you get target fixated on the bandit in front of you, or swing around and dicking the strike package while you try to get another star painted on your bird. More often than not, the bandit will acquiesce and graciously allow you to kill him in a vigorous military manner. Sometimes you get a particularly nasty bandit that has no manners and will just not play right and die. For those unruly bastards, there is always the next installment of Tactics 101...

 

DLO: Know when to fight and when run. Lag as an offensive maneuver is effective only against inexperienced or bad pilots, and should be used mainly as a way of preserving a neutral position on the bandit while trying to find and opening to exploit in order to convert to a weapons solution on the target aircraft. Stay aware of the tactical situation. Know where the bandit’s buddies are. Know your bandit’s energy state. Know where other threats, potential or otherwise, are in relation to you. Know where the friendlies are too, fratricide will ruin your day. If you are doing all of these things and the fight is still not going your way, and does not look like it will, it is time to hit the escape window and get out of the fight.

[FastCargo 412]

Tactics 101 - Pure and Lead Pursuit

 

by Ed "Skater" Lynch

 

Ok, we left off last time with a description of the Lag Pursuit, and how to make it work for you. Now let’s discuss the two other general types of pursuit flying.

 

Here are a few more fighter-speak words and acronyms to add to your sock drawer...

 

DICK: Verb. To get waxed (killed) in general. Ex: "Don’t let the strike flight get dicked."

 

LCOS: Lead Computing Optical Sight. A type of gunsight that takes into effect many variables such as wind, lead, aircraft speed, projectile velocity, etc. for accurate aerial gunnery deployment.

 

PIPPER: The focal point of a gunsight or a HUD weapons mode. Also known as "The Kill Dot" to Mud Hen drivers.

 

3/9 LINE: An imaginary line running through your aircraft from the 3 o’clock position through the 9 o’clock position. This line denotes the forward and rear hemispheres.

 

Lesson Two - 06 JUL 98 - Pure and Lead Pursuit or "How I spent my Summer Vacation"

 

Pure Pursuit is basically flying directly at or directly behind your bogey, and staying there. For example, when you and your wingman are flying in an extended Lead-Trail formation, the wingman is basically flying Pure Pursuit on you. And, as with all fighter maneuvers, the most basic goal is to keep the baddies in front of you, exhaust baking the paint on the glare shield. There is simply nothing more disheartening for a bad guy than a Western-built aircraft sitting in deep six. Revel in that, and flip him the bird for good measure! :-)

 

The main use of Pure Pusuit is to close the range or to decrease the angle-off on your bandit, in order to close to within weapons firing parameters (the ultimate goal IS to kill the bandit after all), or to get to a position where the bandit is of less threat to you or other allied aircraft. Generally, if you are already in the bandit’s six, you will have already have shot him, if you need to be told to do this, then Tactics 101 will not help you, you need to fly C-5’s and haul Dixie cups to La Paz and back, not fly fighters. You types may leave the classroom now.

 

For the fighter-types still left in the room, we’ll continue...

 

Now let’s talk a little about Lead Pursuit. Lead Pursuit is basically an intercept course to your bandit. Again, this type of pursuit course is mainly used to close range to the bandit or angle-off from the bandit. It is also used when maneuvering for a guns kill. For example, while maneuvering in lag behind your bandit, you manage to pull the nose across the bandit’s plane of motion and put your nose out in front of him and begin firing. The lead that you pull on the bandit allows your rounds to reach the same airspace as the bandit at the same time. In many modern fighters, the gunsight is of the lead-computing type or will have a LCOS mode. In those cases, maneuvering to put the gunsight pipper on the bandit will actually have you flying a lead pursuit course in order to accurately deploy the gun onto the offending bandito (almost all bandits are quite offensive, disgusting, vile things).

 

Lead Pursuit is most probably the most common form of pursuit flying, and also the most commonly unrecognized. You probably already fly this type of pursuit quite well and do not even know it. If you ever fired in front of an aircraft in order to make bullet and airframe meet in WarBirds or Air Warrior III, you have been flying Lead Pursuit. If you have ever flown at an off angle in order to close the distance on a bandit and end up sliding in behind him by simply pointing your nose out in front of his nose and flying straight in Jane’s F-15, you have been flying Lead Pursuit. Congratulations Tiger, you are well on your way to becoming a Sim Ace.

 

In the next installment of Tactics 101 we are going to discuss some more complicated maneuvers and tactics. Stay strapped in to your ACES II ...

 

DLO: The Desired Learning Objective for today is basically to keep the bandit in front of you and to keep you in control of the bandit. Keep the bandit forward of your 3/9 line. Use Lead Pursuit to chop the distance between you and the bandit, and use Pure Pursuit to calculate a course to slide in behind him and to stay there. Use Lead Pursuit to put the pipper on the target and start rocking and rolling. Pretty soon, you can show the bandit what 4th of July in the good old USA is like from a first-person perspective!

[FastCargo 412]

Tactics 101 - Offensive & Defensive Maneuvers

 

by Ed "Skater" Lynch

 

For those who've made it this far, welcome to Tactics 101 Part 3. Here's where we talk about some more complicated maneuvers. This course will now concentrate on specific offensive and defensive maneuvers against specific threats, both from the air and from the ground. Get a frosty beverage now, this is gonna be a long one.

 

First, here are a few more F-driver words and acronyms to add to paste to your O-mask…

 

ASL: Above Sea Level. Any altitude level that is above the mean sea level, which is a constant.

 

AGL: Above Ground Level. Any altitude above the current elevation of the ground level below you. This is not a constant.

 

Wizzo: WSO, Weapons System Officer. Also known as GIB (Guy In Back). In the Navy, they are known as B/N's (Bombardier/Navigator) and RIO's (Radar Intercept Officer).

 

HARM: AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM). Missile used into persecuting radar guided surface to air missile sites and radar installations.

 

SMOKER: Jet engine. Generally a reference to the smoky J-79 engines that power the American versions of the F-4, but can be used in reference to any jet engine.

 

 

Lesson Three - 13 JUL 98 - Defensive Maneuvers versus Ground Threats or "How to Move Mud Without Getting Dirty"

 

We are gonna break from the offensive for a bit and talk a little about how to survive when a dirt-eating non-pilot is trying to kill you. Defending against the ground threat can get quite hairy at times, particularily because ground-based weapons systems are big, powerful, highly capable, and in many cases (like the SA-10 and SA-12), very, very, deadly.

 

Let's start with the most common of all ground threats… Guns. Trip-A comes in all shapes and sizes, and every one of them, down to the 82-year old farmer with a flintlock, can be the beginning of a very bad day.

 

The easiest way to defeat gun systems is to fly above their effective altitude. In most cases this is an altitude between 8,000 and 13,000 feet AGL. Integrated Trip-A defensive systems have rings of guns that are of varying calibre and guidance. The most elaborate of these have multiple targeting systems (laser, optical, radar, etc.) and multiple altitude levels can be blanketed with fire from varying calibre gun systems. These are the most dangerous, as they are more effective, and tightly directed and concentrated. For these systems, flying above their effective altitude is probably not an option except for the most sophisticated and modern aircraft and weapons, because their effective altitude may reach as high as 20,000 feet AGL or higher. Few targeting systems can accurately place iron on target from that altitude. An F-117 can place the pickles in the barrel from Angels 20, so can an expert Mudhen Wizzo do it with an LGB from that alt, but an F-4 can't, and an AV-8B, no way. For less sophisticated aircraft and weapons systems, we're gonna havta get doity! (I'm a Noo Yawka and proud of it!)

 

Target approach to a heavily defended integrated air-defense system should be made at a relatively high altitude. I like to ingress at about Angels 08. This allows me to get a good view of the target and surrounding area, as well as staying above much of the smaller calibre trip-a, and at the extreme altitude range of the man-portable SAM's. Take this time to jink port and starboard for a few seconds each to get a good view of just what is out there. Your best visuals are gonna come from the port and starboard Plexiglas. Keep one eye on the threat display. Look out for any SAM radar's just lighting up for a look-see. If you see any Gladiator's (SA-12/S-300) or Grumble's (SA-10), hit the deck fast! Get as low as possible, and rush at them. They WILL kill you. Hope for good Weasel support, or get your HARM off ASAP. If you don't have a HARM, then start praying. Chances are better than good that these systems are either going to get you, or they are gonna cause you to get light in a hurry, and either way, they win. If there are tracers coming up around you, the trip-a has your altitude, and it's time to start jinking. Make your flight path erratic, and unpredictable. If you fly at a constant altitude or on a continuous heading, you will get got. Move the nose around the horizon, roll around a bit, change altitude in the positive and negative, go faster. All of these things are effective countermeasures against guided and unguided anti-aircraft weapons.

 

Once you've got the target in sight and everything is greened up, then choose a direct route to the target, taking into effect any threats you've managed to eyeball from the IP. Put the nose on that vector and go fast! The only thing that will get you out of a bad area faster is more speed on the nose and more fire on the tail. Keep your eyes peeled for bandits; don't get fixated on the ground threat. When you've got a good target picture, put the nose in a shallow dive at the target, place the dot on the baddies, and pickle away! Your very next motion should be to slam the throttle all the way forward pull the nose up about 10 degrees (or head for the deck if you have heavy duty SAM's in the area) pick a vector, and get outta Dodge at the speed-o-heat! Remember the less you have to think about over the TA, the better. Get everything for getting bombs off and the target destroyed done BEFORE the ingress. You don't wanna be looking for the Master Arm switch 2 Mikes from the target with AAA and SAM's flying all around you.

 

Ok, now we know what to do while over a defended target, but you say you are running into individual or groups of air-defenses en route to the TA. What do you do then? Well, in those cases, it is best to dissect the threat, and defeat the actual threat with a proven effect defensive measure. So, let's talk about the behavior of certain threats...

 

SAM's: Surface to Air Missiles are usually large, and fairly easy to spot. If they hit you, you will usually go down in flames. Few aircraft outside of the A-10 and Su-25 can survive even a single hit by a SAM. They move very fast, and carry with them a significant amount of kinetic energy. They also contain a highly explosive fuel, and usually, a very large warhead. Suffice it to say, a direct hit by a SAM is usually a lose-lose situation, and even a peripheral hit or concussion hit can kill your aircraft, and you. A concussion hit will do the least damage, but it can still down you. To successfully defeat a missile, you first have to SEE it. Next, employ countermeasures, and last MOVE. When employing countermeasures remember two things. One, too much is better than not enough, and Two, you have just enough time to react, no time to think. SAM's almost always fly PURE PURSUIT to you, and at a very high rate of speed (most fly at speeds beyond Mach 3). Only the most sophisticated SAM systems (Gladiator, Grumble and Patriot PAC-II and PAC-III) can fly LEAD PURSUIT and course correct in flight to achieve a high PK. You should place a SAM on your beam, drop chaff and flares, and make a hard turn into the missile as it gets near to you. This is a judgement call, but don't wait too long. At Mach 4 or 5, that golf ball sized missile will be telephone pole sized in a few seconds flat! Turning hard into the missile causes the missile's guidance system to turn hard to correct its flight path so that it achieves a direct hit. While you may only be pulling 8 or 9 g's, the missile may be pulling 40-60 g's. In most cases, you will out turn the missile. In others, your parents will be burying a sponge in Arlington. I have put together a little anti-SAM checklist. If you follow it, you should be alright.

Eyeball the missile.

Put the missile on your beam (90 degrees off the nose. i.e. off the port or starboard wing).

Deploy countermeasures (chaff AND flares, don't worry about if the missile is IR or RADAR guided, just dump both).

Turn on the music.

Turn hard INTO the missile.

Pray.

 

Trip-A: The best way to avoid AAA is to stay above it. If that is not possible, the best way to survive it is to not get hit. :-) To do that, you need to jink wildly, and generally make your flight path as unpredictable as possible. As I stated before, move the nose up, down, left, and right. Roll all over. Climb and dive. Just be generally as ornery as you can be. It just may save your life, and your airframe, and in most cases both, because if you bring your bird home with holes in it, that Crew Chief with his name plastered on the starboard side of your aircraft will kill you. Again, you need to eyeball the threat. This is easy, cause when guns fire on you, they usually miss before they hit, and the tracers look real purty too. Place the gun on your beam, turn on the music if you have a threat radar indication on the TEWS, and pump up the volume on the smoker. No where does the credo "Speed is Life" count more than it does here. Keep jinking until you are out of range. Let's go to the Trip-A checklist...

Eyeball the threat gun.

Turn on the music if you have to.

Place the gun on your beam.

Put fire on the tail.

JINK JINK JINK!

Jink some more Kemosabe!

 

DLO: The DLO for this lesson is basically that there is no substitute for practice and good old fashioned hard maneuvering. If you have a missile on you, follow the checklist, and move. If you have a gun firing on you, follow the checklist and move. There is no substitute. Practice the checklist's against simulated threats in instant action or against designer missions that you have set up. When flying in a campaign, a competition, on-line against a friend, or with a group of buds over the LAN, you get only one chance. No do-overs. It's do or die at that point. Practice, practice, practice, and maybe you won't die. The checklists should soon become second nature, and you should live a bit longer. At least until you fly against me. :-)

[Tank50us 0]

If I get whacked because some F-16 WW Pilot didn't do his job, I'm going to haunt him for the rest of his natural life! (and even into the next one :P)

[lorimay1 0]

hello,my name is lori and yeah,i'm new here!!!!!I was in the army for about fifteen years and learning to fly looks like alot of fun!!!!I have NO IDEA just how to play games that involve flight because iv'e been a ground pounder most of my military life,any ideas on how to get started???????

[Viper6 3]

hello,my name is lori and yeah,i'm new here!!!!!I was in the army for about fifteen years and learning to fly looks like alot of fun!!!!I have NO IDEA just how to play games that involve flight because iv'e been a ground pounder most of my military life,any ideas on how to get started???????

 

Get a flight stick. go into the options of your game and play with the settings until you find what works for you. go to the download section and get the practice range mods, read up on the articles in the knowledge Base pertaining to ACM and weapons usage, learn the good points and bad points of as many Aircraft as you can stand as well as the SAM, AAA and all the other crap on the ground that will be shooting at you. Learn about terrain masking and how to hide your flight from detection for as long as possible. PRACTICE EVERYTHING especially dumb bomb delivery.

[JediMaster 451]

Oh, and if you're looking to start from scratch (sounds like you are) you need to pick what era you want to fly in first. WWI? WWII? Jet age? Modern era? That will have a lot of bearing on what game you should pick.

[cianw1 0]

is there some sort of download for a training map of some sort? ive looked through downloads and tried the search function but i couldnt find anything? i need a training map/shooting range for Strike Fighters Gold. Thanks!