Caesar

Not to be the one to pull the OPSEC flag here, but the majority of modern aircraft's RCS modelling, reductions and intel are classified. Might not be the best place to start posting on that topic.

Ditto to what StreakEagle said. You can get bits and pieces on the unclassified side on jamming; historic information on how effective it may have been in this circumstance or that, that x system was designed to work in a electronically jammed environment, basic information on the physics behind ECM, etc., but actual effectiveness, TTP's, studies, etc. are pretty much limited to the classified side.

OK, it's been a long while since our last DACT report, so I've got one tonight straight outta' TOPGUN (not the movie). This was in essence a 2vUNK, but with the numbers known (2v6), starting neutral. The bandits were 2x F-16C Blk 30, 2x F-5E Tiger II and 2x A-4F Super Fox, representing an enemy equipped with MiG-29, MiG-21 and MiG-17/19 fighters. The fighters were 2x F-14B (96) Tomcats. In this case, we were outnumbered, but had the missile advantage, having 8 all aspect heaters, and 8 radar guided missiles augmented by two guns (total) compared to the enemy with 8 all aspect heaters, and 8 rear-quarter heaters, though with 6 guns split among them. Loadouts were as follows: Fighters F-14B Tomcat: 4x AIM-7P, 4x AIM-9M, gun, 100% internal fuel, tanks (immediate jettison) Bandits F-16C Blk 30 Viper: 4x AIM-9M, gun, 100% internal fuel, no tanks F-5E Tiger II: 2x AIM-9J, 2x gun, 100% fuel, no tanks A-4F Super Fox: 2x AIM-9P-5, 100% fuel, no tanks The fight started from neutral with hard pulls into each other. Because our Tomcats were heavy, I decided to perform a nose-low initial max-g turn into the threat. I assigned -2 to go after the second F-16 as I went for the "bait" aircraft. In this instance, only the one F-16 acted as bait, all other aircraft began turning onto our tails. I fired an AIM-9M at the bait Viper, but it looked like it was fooled, so I boresighted and fired an AIM-7P. Just as the Papa left the rail, the F-16 exploded off my nose, so I padlocked the second Viper just as the AIM-7 also struck the first Viper. I pulled hard and was getting close to nose-on when the first Viper and both A-4's began shooting at -2. Clearly he wasn't putting much effort into maneuvering on the initial attack, but since the Vipers had the all-aspect missiles, I don't know if it shot at him angle-off or what (from the screenshot, it looks like it). Because the Viper was shooting at -2, he hadn't taken evasive action against me and I called FOX 2 on him about two seconds after his missile left the rail. My wingman took the Viper's Sidewinder but kept flying for a moment, as my Sidewinder impacted the Viper, tearing off his starboard wing and causing the pilot to punch out. Seconds later, the Super Fox's P-5 also struck my wingman, causing him to punch out. Now it's 1v4. I quickly spotted the A-4 that had shot down -2, and began to pull hard into him, when I suddenly realized I had no idea where the F-5's were! Check Six! Right there was an F-5 closing, but off boresight and unable to fire. I initially turned hard and to his left, but I realized he had the energy to match me. One thing I know is that even the TF-30 powered F-14A has better thrust to weight compared to the F-5. Time to take it vertical - began an Immlemann. The F-5 follows, but is quickly loosing energy. As I begin to finish my Immlemann turn, I can see he's damn near out of energy and is going to drop like a rock if I can hold the fight a little longer. Rolling the Tomcat back onto its back and putting the stick into my lap, I see the F-5 drop its nose hard; he's practically floating, I drop the flaps to get my nose down more quickly. At this point I'm at under 80 KIAS. Tone, FOX 2! First -9 Mike misses, FOX 2 again! Good kill! Lifting the flaps to gain energy, and pulling out of my dive, I check for the second F-5 or any A-4's hanging around. Suddenly, I get a "Missile Launch!" warning. Rolling and pulling, dropping flares, I see where the missile is coming from, and realize I can beat it with maneuvering. Plug in the blower and continue to pull into what turns out to be the other F-5, he overshoots and a horizontal scissors ensues. I'm down at around 180-200KIAS while the Tiger driver keeps his energy slightly higher and so is able to keep the fight slightly favoring himself, I go for a vertical attack, pulling low, and then into a loop. The Tiger is able to keep his nose more threatening (never enough for a gun shot), but his flaps are dropping. He's low on energy. As he pulls through nose-low, I press vertical as before (having taken a few seconds to extend and bring the energy to closer to 300KIAS). As his wingman had, this Tiger runs out of energy and is flying predictably straight, trying to rebuild energy. As before, I drop flaps, get the nose around and select gun. I was at about 6000 feet to the F-5's 1000 feet, but slow enough and with the flaps down so that I could complete my loop and hit him. Get some lead and zzip! Guns on the F-5! Now where the hell are the A-4's? Well, I suppose they thought they'd get away after splashing my wingman. That's unfortunate. They had gotten about 18 miles away from the fight. They must have forgotten the Tomcat has a lot of speed and a lot of gas available to it. Plug in the blower, get some altitude and take a chase shot with a 400-Knot closure rate at about 12 miles. First A-4 takes the shot and detonates. Target the second one FOX 1! Miss, FOX 1 again! Miss. Okay, well, I now have to modulate the burner because I'm going fast enough that I have to worry about engine overheat. Get to within 2 miles, cut the blower and dive on the A-4. The Fox doesn't see me, I line up and gun him. Wingy avenged! Still have over 7000 pounds of gas in the jet, well more than enough to get back to friendly lines and land. Total fight time: 7 minutes, 35 seconds. Whew! Takeaways: Aside from the obvious "if this was an actual combat mission and not a DACT starting at dogfight range we'd have shot our Sparrows at 'em to thin their numbers beforehand" I need to work on wingman tactics, or my wingman has to use his plane better. As it stood, I knew both F-16's had to die fast. They (at the weight we started at) had better thrust to weight and also had all-aspect missiles. With them splashed, the next biggest threat was the F-5's. Both were sneaky and both found their way onto my six while I was dealing with another enemy. In this case, it was their own fatal flaw to try to fight me in the vertical, and to allow themselves to get dragged slow. The A-4's, for whatever reason, gave up after they shot down my wingman, and could have made the whole thing a lot deadlier if they had attacked alongside the F-5's, but instead gave me a good tail-chase interception scenario after the other bandits were splashed. Now, would be neat to try this against the MiG-29, -21 and -17! Any Time, Baby!

Heck, the Delta rockets and Minuteman III tests caused a helluva lot of noise miles away at Vandy, and they're not even the heavy lifters (the later being an ICBM)! Don't think a Saturn launch would be anywhere in the realm of possibility to conceal by a long shot! Not sure what to think about this one; might be a rental, but odds are I'd get frustrated with it like I do for most horror movies.

Just a friendly reminder that if you haven't done so recently to back up your stuff! Just did so here prior to performing a computer upgrade; put the whole mod folder onto a single BD-RE prior to upgrading the rest of the machine. Don't let data loss happen to you!

Go 174th!

I think what he means by TWS is the AWG-9's Track While Scan-Automatic and Track While Scan-Manual (TWS-A/M) modes which allow either the AWG-9 to select the 1-6 most threatening targets (automatic), or allow the RIO (manual) to do so, and designate a Phoenix to each, allowing for multiple simultaneous target engagement with the AIM-54. Fire one, wait a second for the radar to update, fire two, wait a second for the radar to update, fire three, etc... Current TWS mode allows the player to select a target without locking and still see other targets on the screen, but to shoot, we still need to lock and go into Single Target Track mode. TWS-A/M would be cool, but it won't be a deal breaker for me if the new Tomcat is released without it. If it is added, it would be cool to add the feature to TMF's Alpha and Bravo, too!

Sent mine in just now.

As the above have said, I've been using the X52 for about 3 years now. It's recently picked up a bit of a squeak, which I've tried to use gun oil to fix; only silences it for a short span of time, so I might be needing a replacement, but it has always worked fine for SF2.

Glad to see the crew came home safe and sound, but sad to see the Shuttle go. Bravo Zulu, Atlantis.

Sierra Hotel! Much thanks to TMF!

Which version of the F-15 are you flying? I just took an F-15C(85) up against a MiG-29 and its gunsight was tracking fluidly.

I think I know what you're talking about. While in the gun pattern, depending on how hard you pull, the pipper will move down with the pull, then as you relax pull on the stick, the pipper will take a moment, then quickly recover towards the top of the HUD. Not entirely sure why this happens, but usually it doesn't matter as much if you're in the gun pattern after having beat the opponent down on energy, so he can't move his plane around very easily. The smaller the stick movements, the less the pipper "sticks". EDIT: Also, do you have your target locked up? That'll make the gun sight move relative to the target - don't know if it's smoother or not, just a suggestion.

Well, one thing's for damn sure, I've been enjoying the F-16C models. I figured, after getting some flight time in them, I might as well see how they perform against the Turkey (as EricJ had also done against the Super Bug). I also figured it was fitting since the F-16C Block 30 was the basis for the F-16N used by TOPGUN to simulate the MiG-29. Did three 1v2 fights, first in the F-14A, second and third in the F-14B at different weights. Fight #1 Loadouts: F-14A - 4x AIM-9L, 2x AIM-7M, gun, no tanks, 75% internal fuel F-16C - 4x AIM-9L, ECM pod, gun, no tanks, 100% internal fuel This fight was over in 1 minute, 2 seconds and was largely the result of TTP's and my missiles not malfunctioning. Fight started one-circle. One of the common TTP's I've noticed is that one plane will act as bait, while the other winds round to your tail. I figure, why the hell attack the bait aircraft? I put about 9g on the Tomcat into the threat, going slightly nose low. This way, I've got gravity to help the poor thrust of the TF-30's to keep those 9g on the frame. Probably bled to about 8g by the time I got nose-on on the F-16 coming for my 6 o'clock. He was not doing a 9g turn himself, but was coming on hard. Got tone as he continued his turn and sent a heater his way. Good kill on #1. I rolled back and pulled hard towards #2, going for max g, while also knowing that the energy bled would get me towards 400KIAS where I could corner quick. I got nose on the F-16 and sent a heater his way, which was fooled by flares. Sent another, which was also fooled, but both shots kept the F-16 flying a predictable evasion maneuver and I wrenched the Turkey into position on his six. He was maneuvering towards the vertical with the blower engaged. I took two snap shots, then a third longer burst, which was much better placed, sawing off his right wing and causing the pilot to eject. Fight #2 Loadouts: F-14B - 4x AIM-9M, 2x AIM-7P, gun, no tanks, 100% internal fuel F-16C - 4x AIM-9M, ECM pod, gun, no tanks, 100% internal fuel Fight #2 took slightly longer, but I followed the same initial TTP. Pulling hard into the threat, I again targeted the F-16 headed for my 6. This time, however, my first heater failed to track. I fired a second, but this one also failed to track. Now I'm in a bit of trouble. Rather than press on #1, I check the skies for #2, since I know he's now going to try to shoot me in the ass. Pull a Split-S into #2 who is just getting nose-on. VSL-High selected and boresight Viper #2 at 3 miles. I know he's going to shoot, but I send a Sparrow his way anyhow. Rather than go for the 1:1 exchange and win the fight, #2 starts popping chaff and maneuvering away from the Sparrow, which he fails to evade and is destroyed at about 1.75miles off my nose. Time to find #1 again. He's gone high and is working his nose to a threatening position. I know I need to close, so that's exactly what I do. Pull hard into the threat and hope that I can threaten him. He's nose-low and lets a heater loose in my direction. Pop flares, cut the throttle and pull hard. The Mike takes the bait and misses my Turkey Beast by a long shot. A loop ensues, which involves a series of high-g turns and rudder to try to get the best position. The F-16 breaks after I begin to go nose-high the second time. I continue a vertical press, and as I reach the bottom of my second loop with some rudder, get tone. Fox 2 - hrmm, that's kind of HOBS, so I'll keep maneuvering. Well, this particular 9M was able to achieve lead and strike the second F-16. All this happened in 1 minute, 38 seconds. Fight #3 Loadouts: F-14B - 4x AIM-9M, gun, no tanks, 50% internal fuel F-16C - 4x AIM-9M, ECM pod, gun, no tanks, 100% internal fuel My third and final fight was a set up to see how the F-14 would handle the F-16 at similar internal fuel quantities, considering at this weight, I had a 1.07:1 TW at the fight's start. Pulled hard to do the same start as the previous two fights (AI really likes that bait and turn start). Fox 2, miss, Fox 2 again hit, roll and pull into remaining F-16. Here's the main thing. At this weight, and with as much thrust as I had, the Tomcat was pegging the accelerometer (10+g if I went full pull) and was holding that "g" pretty damn well. The second F-16 wasn't screwing around; he knew I was pressing hard and was trying to get inside my turn, but with those twin GE engines belching fire and lowering my weight every second, it wasn't going in the Viper's favor. Initially, we were about neutral, so I cut the engines and began curling inside the F-16. My Tomcat was now bleeding speed, but so was the Viper. I sent a HOBS Mike after him, but it didn't track. This wouldn't end up mattering, as I plugged the blower back in at low speed and generated a turn rate that the F-16 couldn't match at his energy state. It took about three seconds and I was nose-on. 20mm, 6000rds/min selected. GUNS! Good kill on the Viper. Fight's over in 1 minute 41 seconds. "Do you have any idea how BIG your intakes look when you're gunning us?" - actual remark by a Viper driver to a Tomcat crew after DACT vs an F-14B Takeaways: A light Turkey Beast is a dangerous plane. However, I think a lot of the successes shown today have to do more with the DACTs we've been flying than anything else. Recall in the earlier pages, it took me some 10 minutes to kill a single F-16! And boy, was it a fight! Now, even finishing the fights with guns, I've got the times down to under 2 minutes. Also, I know that F-16's amazing from the hops I've been flying since I downloaded it. Got guns on some Fulcrums, kills on Flankers, it's a downright beauty to fly, so I was happy with the results going against it. Any Time, Baby!

Happy Birthday, Gentlemen!

Historically speaking, JM, you're right. The last time I can think of when a Western power had fewer fighters airborne than their enemy was probably Vietnam. Over Libya in the 1980's there were several dogfights that occurred with no shots fired due to ROE between USN F-4's and F-14's vs. Libyan Mirage F-1 and MiG-25s, where the F-4's and F-14's typically flew as a section of 2, and would encounter a Libyan section of between 2 and 4, but could be jumped by other aircraft. Fortunately for us, there were also far more airplanes on patrol in different sections of the sky that could then jump the Libyans. I think the whole concept of being behind on numbers is part of that Cold War "World War III" thought process. The FSU was making a lot more smaller, cheaper planes than us, and we could expect to see a larger number of them airborne in, say, a blitz on Western Europe, or as mentioned earlier, as we had in the skies over Vietnam. Tomcat RIO "Bio" Baranek wrote of 2 versus unknown training engagements: "The 2vUNK is a realistic and valuable training scenario. On the fighter side, the basic unit for combat employment of Navy fighters is a section composed of lead and wingman. The value of a second fighter was borne out repeatedly, so the Navy almost never assigned a single fighter to combat. On the bogey side, in the real world, you rarely knew for sure how many you were facing. Despite the quality of E-2 or ship-board radar controllers, despite the fighters' ability to sanitize airspace, despite the enemy aircraft you may kill before the merge, if you were over enemy territory and were engaged, additional enemy fighters could show up at almost any time. This happened in combat, so TOPGUN trained us for it." (Baranek, TOPGUN Days, 116) True enough today, and for the past few decades, we haven't been in an engagement against an opponent who could directly stand toe to toe in the air. But figuring out how we'd fight against a numerically superior enemy is one of those things we have to be able to know; the world changes all the time, and its better to be prepared than not!

I see what you mean, DA, but even in the era of the F-14, F-15, F-16 and F/A-18, we always figured we'd be lower in overall numbers; hence why there was 1vX and 2vX training with the Tomcat, Eagle, Viper and Hornet to figure how we'd perform in a real-world fight. But I'd be willing to bet that the F-35/F-22 combination will be able to better match an air to air threat better than F-14/F-18 or F-15/F-16 combo against a modern enemy.

I'm sorry, but I'm a believer in the F-35. And a step down? The F-35 IS the USAF/USN/USMC's new hotness for TACAIR! Cutting edge, like the UEWR for ITW/AA and SBSS for the SSN. Folks like to bad-mouth it based on reports with questionable accuracy (there's always a counterargument) and which only touch on the unclassified, releasable aspects of the program. You're badmouthing an airplane which you don't even know the true capabilities of. I'm very happy to hear the first production birds are being delivered, and wish the 33d FW the best.

This is an example of the payoff from the constant DACT we've been posting about. No pictures involved for this one. In this case, I went in for some combat in the year 1977 in an F-14A Tomcat with my wingman in an F-4B Phantom II. The competition was a set of four MiG-23 Flogger L's that came to take us down. I was loaded with 4 AIM-7F between the engine nacelles, 2 AIM-54A on stations 1B and 8B under the glove pylons, and 2 AIM-9H on stations 1 and 8 above them, max internal fuel, and tanks. Initially we took off, and I figured, let's do an "Alt-N" thing to get into combat, since I'd have shot at far distance the instant whatever competition got in the air, and I wanted to give 'em a fighting chance. And a fighting chance they got! Popping off the tanks, I detect a flight of four Floggers at about 12 miles off the nose. Lock up the first one and fire an AIM-54 in his direction. I break lock at 9 miles (Phoenix was PITBULL at this point) and selected the next Flogger, instructing my wing to attack. That's when three of the Floggers burned through my ECM and put 3 AA-7's in my direction. Soooo...no one noticed the F-4? Anyhow, hard break to try to beam their radars and deploy chaff. I can see the missiles' smoke trails and can see that two of the three took the chaff, which I am still pumping out, because #3 is not fooled. After realizing I was probably going to buy the farm, I did a hard nose-low rudder roll which caused the remaining AA-7 to get confused and it missed slightly behind and left of my Turkey. Okay, good, why the hell hasn't my wingman fired yet? And now I'm also outta' chaff! In the process of the defensive maneuvering, I notice that one of the Floggers is a flaming wreck, my first AIM-54 has done the job. From this point onward, I also notice two things: #1 - my wingman is utterly incompetent and #2 - the Floggers know this and focus ONLY on killing me. From my position below the Floggers, I pull pure vertical and hear a FOX 2 call from my wingman, which has no effect. I get the trailing MiG-23 on the nose, get tone and fire an AIM-9 at him. I immediately notice that it went stupid, so I put another in his direction, which tracks and shoots him down. Okay, let's see where the remaining two MiGs are. Both of them are turning hard into me. Set the sights on one of them and send wingy to deal with him while I deal with the second one. Here comes the fun part. Over the span of no less than 3 minutes, my wingman is utterly incapable of harming "his" MiG. Not only that, the Floggers aren't even maneuvering to go defensive against the Phantom, but rather to be wholly offensive against me! I have to change who I'm engaging multiple times, and energy management, honed through our constant DACTs, is what keeps me alive. Every time one of the two Floggers gets to a threatening position, I had maintained enough energy to both maneuver to nose-on and close the gap to inside of minimum range so they can't shoot. After a series of circles against both remaining Floggers, exchanging offensive and counter-defensive maneuvers, I get into a decidedly advantageous position against one of the two MiGs, while his wingman is facing the other direction (180-degrees+ of turn to threaten me). Initially, I see I'm two miles out and send an AIM-7F his way. The Sparrow Foxtrot initially guides, then goes stupid. Okay, I'm now inside of the Sparrow's minimum range, and am closing for gun. I check on his #2, tell the Phantom to shoot him again, then re-focus on "my" Flogger. Close to within 1 mile and then see #2 getting nose on again. S#!7. The damn Phantom is behind him and isn't shooting! I try for a quick angle-off snap shot but it misses, and now I've got to AGAIN pull into my attacker. This is the closest that #2 is to firing parameters, but he again misses the chance. Sadly for #2, my Flogger (#1) hasn't made the best decision and tried to turn in my direction in his defensive pull. After a quick, high-g rudder roll, I spit my Flogger out, lock and he's traveling too fast. He falls outside minimum Sparrow range and I fire. This one guides and hits the Flogger. One to go. I hear over the radio "FOX 2" - holy hell, my wingman actually shot! Wait, it doesn't matter, the Flogger is pulling into me to try to kill me again, and wingy's heater doesn't track. I had begun a horizontal scissors slightly before wingy shot, and the Flogger was not winning. He pulled away a bit trying to run when he realized I was going to get onto his tail. I cycled weapons, initially selecting gun, then selecting Sparrow; or rather, thinking I selected Sparrow, boresighted the MiG as he pulled defensively into me at about 1.8 miles. FOX 1! Hrmm, what's with the long delay? The Buffalo rockets up and past my Tomcat. Oh damn! No way that's gonna hit at this close range! Not a big deal, I'll just keep my turn, but wait! The giant AIM-54 has achieved lead! The Flogger detonates off of my Tomcat's nose. Mission Accomplished. Takeaways: In a 1v1 you can beat the opponent down on energy, and many times I do so. Also, when fighting with only rear-quarter shots, you have less to worry about, less angles to cut off. In this case, I had an opponent who had a BVR face shoot capability, as well as AA-8's which were at least a match for my Hotel Sidewinders. Indeed, the enemy did get shots on my Tomcat and nearly killed me before the engagement even started. On the other hand, had I not used "Alt-N" it'd probably have been far more one-sided. Remember, in a furball that starts with nose-on, if you survive the initial exchange, maintaining enough energy to maneuver is tantamount to survival. Had I tried for a low-energy rolling scissors fight, one of those three remaining Flogger's likely would have sent an AA-7 my way as my wingman faltered horribly to try to shoot one down. Instead, without any chaff left, it was maneuvering and energy that saved my ass every time.

Congratulations, and thank you for your service!

Today's fight: F-14A Tomcat vs. 4x MiG-21bis Fishbed; year 1981. The MiG-21 Fishbed is a bit more challenging close in than the MiG-23. It has better maneuverability across the board, but slightly worse acceleration and no BVR capability. Compared to the F-14 at combat weight, it has worse wing loading, but similar thrust to weight. It can also handle surprisingly well at low speed/high alpha. Fight time was 3 mins 7 secs. Loadouts: F-14A: 4x AIM-7F, 4x AIM-9L, gun, 75% fuel, no tanks MiG-21bis: 6x AA-8C, gun, 100% fuel, no tanks The F-14A has the advantage over the MiG-21 across most of the flight envelope. In this case, the fight was fairly one-sided. Initially, I pulled about 8 to 9g into the threat. One of the Fishbeds pulled away as bait while 3 of them headed for my tail. Unfortunately for the bait aircraft, I was equipped with the AIM-9L, and because he continued on that vector, the Lima I fired at him tracked and destroyed his plane with no problems. After firing, I continued my pull into the other Fishbeds. I varied "g" between 9g and 6g to sustain turn into the threat, but also to get myself into an advantageous position on the Fishbeds tails. As the third Fishbed initially was falling behind, I started engaging him, but then #2 became lazy and provided an easier target, so I fired a Lima in his direction. This one missed, but I was getting into a good gun position, got lead, and sheared off his tail. I then pressed on one of the remaining two MiGs, while the second was trying to close on my tail. MiG#3 was below me, so I initiated a bit of an expanded yo-yo to get onto his tail. Coming down to his level, I fired and bagged #3 with a Heater, looked right, and saw the final Fishbed turning into me. I pulled hard into him to try for nose-on and saw we were going to get it at about the same time. I kept the pull, but began deploying flares preemptively, expecting a close-range nose-on shot by an AA-8. I was inside of minimum range too quickly, and he never got a shot. I reversed the Tomcat and pulled towards the MiG's tail. Here's where the wing loading and superior sustained turning performance of the Turkey shined through. We were in a one-circle now, getting towards 250KIAS. I dropped my flaps to "take off" and continued my pull into the Fishbed. It was plainly obvious what was going to happen. The Tomcat took a few seconds, but got nose-on inside the MiG's circle, and I got a good tone. FOX 2! Smack! Fight's over, good kill. Takeaways: the MiG-21 is always a bit trickier if you have to shoot them from the rear quarter, but given this set up, I think it would have taken similar time even if I were equipped with the AIM-9D or H. The first Fishbed I bagged was flying in a straight line; the Lima's better maneuverability wasn't even necessary there. Second kill was with guns, third and fourth were the ones at angle off and may have required a bit more working. Suffice to say, the MiGs were outperformed this time around.

End of an era; definitely sad to see it go. We'll see what the future holds, but for now, let's just hope Atlantis delivers her crew home safe at the end of the mission.

I recall in one conversation with a Tomcat RIO, if the carrier had enough prep time, they'd begin arming all available F-14's with their full AIM-54 compliment and launching the aircraft in a tactic that was termed the "Chainsaw". The Tomcats would have priority for launch, would fire their AIM-54's at the bombers and missiles as quickly as they got them in firing parameters, land, rearm, lather, rinse, repeat until the threat was gone, or the carrier lost. This did not mean launching all 24 F-14's necessarily, but every available Tomcat, the more the better. EDIT: There was a documentary called "Super Carriers" back in the 1980's which outlined the entire modern carrier defense layout (modern for the mid 1980's), back when the CVBG was huge. DA's assessment on Tomcat and Hornet placement is pretty close to that documentary, so I'd say is a close assessment. If Typhoid were on, he'd probably have better insight.

Happy Birthday, JM!

Happy 4th, ladies and gentlemen!