MigBuster

http://www.f-16.net/f-16_users_article25.html http://www.f-16.net/f-16_users_article14.html

SF2NA gets round that by allowing off map bases - not sure on the implications of player flown a/c - would have to assume you start on the corner of the map.

Should do - because it sets that radar target as your current target - e.g you can now assign a wingman to attack it. I haven't used the easy HUD for years - all I see is a line of text at the bottom of the screen.

Which Allies? just NATO countries? You would need to research each individual country but probably something like AIM-9G AIM-9L AIM-9M-1 to 6 AIM-9P-1 to 5

What for all missiles in all conflicts? - not exactly simplistic. The damage done depends on the type of missile and where it actually hits (also the range) - so difficult to see what use this info is. there are tons for kill claims - but hits with no kills? you will need to do some digging...............

Another Rudimentary IFF can be achieved by locking up a target on radar and pressing whatever is mapped to "Current Radar Target"

You saw the photo now see the video

Anything specifically or do we have to speculate?

About the Author Paco Chierici is a retired Naval Aviator. Paco accumulated 3,000 hours and nearly 400 traps flying the A-6 Intruder and F-14 Tomcat on active duty for ten years, and the F-5 as a Navy Adversary pilot for the subsequent ten years in the Navy Reserves. Paco is the Creator and Producer of the award winning Naval aviation adventure-documentary Speed and Angels. Paco flies for a major airline and is type rated in the Boeing 757/767 and the Airbus 330. After leaving military aviation, Paco discovered pistons and props and he now flies his family around in a Mooney and borrows friends Yak-50s for weekend warrior dogfighting I’ve been hearing and telling “There I was…” stories for my entire adult life. It started for me in flight school, listening to a grizzled old sim instructor tell me about the day he got a MiG kill without taking a shot. A Vietnamese MiG-21 had been vectored at him thinking his F-8 was actually an A-7. As the story goes, after the pass, instead of tangling with the jet known as “The MiG Master,” the Fishbed pilot established 2-circle flow and wisely ejected. Kill’s a kill. I’ve got a few of my own, but they’re mostly comical or nearly tragic. But I love hearing them. Last week I heard a great one: A couple years ago the Iranians issued a declaration stating that they would sink the next U.S. warship to enter the Persian Gulf. Further EU and U.S. sanctions against Iran related to their persistent nuclear program had begun to adversely affect the Iranian economy. The value of the Rial had fallen 40% in just a few months. Iranian naval exercises coincided with a rare gap in carrier presence in the Persian Gulf and the Iranian Army Chief stated that if a carrier returned to the gulf, Iran would in no uncertain terms “take action.” Suddenly, after a couple decades of carriers and destroyers splashing around in their bathtub, the Iranians had decided the time was right to claim the Gulf as their own. Well the Persian Gulf is on the regular beat for U.S. carriers for the foreseeable future, despite the brief lapse at that time. The USS Boat was to be the first to pop through the Strait of Hormuz since the edict and the ship was on a relatively high alert status crossing through the narrows. Everybody knew about the Silkworm missiles lining the Iranian coast just a couple miles away as the Boat cruised through the 20-mile wide strait. They all knew about the possibility of F-4s at Bandar Abbas and Bushehr, and the world’s last flying F-14A Tomcats based in Shiraz. A few uneventful hours after the passage, Wingnut had made his way to the flight deck to man the Alert on Cat 3. By this time, the ship was already 100 miles into the Gulf with not even a dust storm kicked up from the Iranian side. The tension level was easing slightly. As the feet of the pilot being relieved hit the deck, he told Wingnut, “Buddy, if you launch I will kick your ass.” Wingnut climbed up the ladder to the Rhino cockpit and snapped in his lap belts, leaving the shoulders off to provide a little freedom to move during the four-hour sit. He checked the systems and the alignment to make sure he was squared away and then, settling down for the long alert, slapped a desert camo hat on his head to provide the only shade from the harsh sun. Earbuds and tunes in place, he pulled out a book and tried to pretend that he was somewhere else. He’d gotten himself as settled and comfortable as he was going to be when the call came out over the flight deck 5MC: “Launch alert A, AAW package, side 207, initial vector 240, contact Strike on button 3!” The bored knots of sailors on the flight deck exploded into action and Wingnut scrambled to get his shit together while the Yellow Shirts, Ordies (Red Shirts) and Green Shirts sprinted in his direction. He started both engines while lowering the canopy and slapping his helmet on. A minute later he was taxing the last couple inches to drive the launch bar into the shuttle. Before he had a chance to catch a breath he was shot off, slapping the gear handle up and was desperately trying to snap in the ejection seat shoulder restraints he had forgotten during the mad scramble on the flight deck. At only five hundred feet and accelerating, the Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet in full blower on a southwesterly heading, Wingnut checked in with Strike on button 3. “Hot vector, on your nose. Fifteen miles, low. Flight of two out of Abu Musa.” That wasn’t the Iranian mainland at all. Abu Musa is a tiny mote of an island equidistant from Iran and UAE as the mouth of the Gulf begins to widen. There had never previously been a sense of a threat from there, despite the fact that U.S. warships routinely cruised between that island and the mainland conducting flight ops. But it did have a small airport. Wingnut pointed his plane and radar in that direction and immediately got a lock. Instantly his system began flashing a symbol he hadn’t seen since the simulators in training: HOSTILE. He was barely off the boat and 5 miles on his nose was a flight of two Su-25 Frogfoots in combat spread hot on the carrier just a couple hundred feet off the water. Wingnut reported the contact and a voice he recognized immediately as CAG commanded him to VID and check the wings for ordnance. Roger that. CAG came back with further instruction; if anything comes off those Frogfoots, splash ‘em. He took the nearest Su-25 close aboard and sure enough he could make out, clear as day, Archers and two massive anti-ship missiles. From the flight deck, the personnel that had just launched Wingnut gathered at the edge of the flight deck watching the action like it was an air show. It was close enough to the Boat that they could see the merge and everything that came after. They saw him max perform the jet in the vertical and come back around in trail, chasing the Su-25s from about a half mile astern. Fighting the sense of surreal in the cockpit, Wingnut first locked the AIM-9 seekerhead on the right hand Frogfoot. Once he got a tone lock he switched to AMRAAM and locked the left hand bandit with the radar. All this with the ship rapidly filling his windscreen. Master arm was up and his finger was poised on the trigger. Given the slightest provocation it would be as simple as squeeze, select FOX-2, squeeze. As he reported to CAG that he was in a position to splash two, the SPO-15 in the left Frogfoot must have been screaming at high warble. That plane broke left directly over the carrier salvoing out streams of flares. His wingman was right behind and as Wingnut converged he thought for a moment how sweet and awesome it would be to switch to guns and hose a Frogfoot down at 500′ just off the stern of the ship. The Frogfoots aborted and disappeared into Iran. When Wingnut trapped and shut down he said he felt like he was in a bad reenactment of the final scene in Topgun. The flight deck personnel had witnessed the entire evolution, and as his engines spooled down they crowded about him, slapping him on the back and asked him absurd questions like, “Sir, did you have ‘radar lock’?” It’s a great story and true. There is video. It’s also a little sobering to consider the implications had those SU-25 pilots been ordered to martyr themselves. In all likelihood, the Boat would have sustained some hits and good men and women would have died. It’s a tight CV Op Area in the gulf. We do our damnedest to avoid irritating the Iranians, but if they ever feel like taking a pot shot, the first one might do some damage. http://fightersweep.com//fightersweep.com/467/fa-18e-super-hornet-vs-two-iranian-su-25-frogfoots/#ixzz3XsGXABaz

X-47B has completed first contact with an aerial refueling hose. On Apr. 16, “Salty Dog 502″, one of the two Unmanned Carrier Air Vehicle demonstrator (UCAS-D) aircraft of the X-47B program performed autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) test, plugging the in-flight refueling (IFR) probe into the hose of aOmega Air tanker off the coast of Maryland. The AAR in set to be the last for the two X-47B stealth killer drone technology demonstrators (the other being “Salty Dog 501″): with the end of this testing phase the two unmanned aircraft will be retired and probably donated to a museum or stored at the “boneyard”, the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. In fact the X-47B is “just” a technology demonstrator and, as such, it’s till quite different from the planned Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS). In spite of calls to extend testing on the Northrop platforms, the costs to reconfigure the two X-47B in such a way to let them behave more like the Navy’s preferred option for UCLASS would be prohibitive. http://theaviationist.com/2015/04/16/salty-dog-502-aar-omega-air/

Truly fantastic model - glad to see its still in progress.

What next Sharks with frikkin laser beams on their heads! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32334186 https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=AyguXoum3rk

? http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/future-rafale-deals-will-also-be-under-govt-to-govt-parrikar/article1-1336821.aspx The defence minister indicated on Monday a $25-billion Indian tender for buying 126 advanced combat aircraft had virtually been scrapped, with New Delhi stressing any future deal for Rafale fighter jets would be through direct negotiations with the French government. The move comes two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India would buy 36 Rafale planes from France in fly-away condition through the government-to-government (G2G) route, reflecting a sense of urgency to buttress the Indian Air Force (IAF)’s depleting fleet. India picked Rafale jets over Eurofighter Typhoons in January 2012 after French firm Dassault Aviation emerged as the lowest bidder for the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) tender for 126 planes. But New Delhi may no longer go in for 126 planes and could reassess its requirements in the new scenario. As of now, the government appears to be keeping its options open to buy more fighters – it could turn to France or another foreign vendor.

Was here also - note he later changed some of his views: http://combatace.com/topic/85295-how-to-win-in-a-dogfight-stories-from-a-pilot-who-flew-f-16s-and-migs/

Happy birthday Diego

The story of how the Starfighter was used to train future astronauts. Being the first operational aircraft able to reach and maintain a speed of more than Mach 2.0, the Lockheed F-104 was a huge leap forward when strictly compared to the contemporary subsonic jets. Thanks to its performance, the Starfighter was chosen to train test pilots destined to fly the X-15, a winged spacecraft that was air-launched by a B-52 Stratofortress, flew into space and then landed conventionally. The idea to modify several F-104As to serve as “manned spacecraft transition trainers” is credited to astronaut Frank Borman who was both student and instructor at Edwards Air Force Base, California, home of the Air Force’s Aerospace Research Pilot School, later renamed U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. The major modifications to the Starfighters consisted in the addition of a 6,000 pound thrust rocket engine at the base of the vertical tail, reaction control thrusters in the nose and in each wing tip, a larger vertical tail, increased wing span, tanks to store the rocket propellants, provision for a full pressure suit, a cockpit hand controller to operate the reaction control thrusters, and modified cockpit instrumentation. Moreover, the unnecessary equipment, like the gun, fire control system, tactical electronics, and auxiliary fuel tanks, was removed. The Starfighters with these modifications were renamed NF-104s. They entered in service in 1963 and their pilots could zoom to more than 100,000 feet in a full pressure suit, experience zero “g”, and use reaction control to handle the aircraft. Only about 35 students had the privilege to fly the NF-104 and each pilot had to be prepared for these “space flights” by using standard Starfighters. The first mission was a pressure suit familiarization flight, with the F-104 flown to high altitude with the cockpit depressurized allowing the student to experience a flight in a fully pressurized suit. To practice the zoom profile, the second flight was conducted in a two-seat F-104, with the instructor that showed to the student how reaching an altitude of 70-80,000 feet performing a 30 degree climb, while the last three missions were made in a single seat Starfighter increasing the climb angle to 45 degrees and reaching an altitude of 90,000 feet. After these five preparation flights, the student finally performed the two programmed NF-104 missions. As described by Steve Markman and Bill Holder in their book One Of A Kind Research Aircraft A History Of In Flight Simulators, Testbeds & Prototypes, the typical flight syllabus started with taking off on jet power, climb to 30-40,000 feet, and accelerate to Mach 1.7-1.9. Then the pilot ignited the rocket engine and pitched the nose up to start the steep climb. After two minutes the Starfighter passed through 80,000 feet, the jet engine flamed out, the rocket engine ran out of fuel and the pilot began a parabolic arc to the peak altitude. It was during the parabolic arc that the pilot experienced “weightlessness” for about one minute and used the side stick to fire the reaction control rockets to control the aircraft’s pitch, roll and yaw motions. Once at a lower altitude, the pilot restarted the jet engine and made a conventional landing: the whole mission lasted about 35 minutes from taxi to landing and was performed in a full pressure suit. One NF-104 was destroyed on Dec. 10 1963. The plane was piloted by legendary Col. Chuck Yeager at that time the Aerospace Research Pilot School Commander. Yeager was attempting to reach an altitude record and after a 60 degree climb, while he was at 101,595 feet, the Starfighter experienced an uncontrollable yawing and rolling motion. Yeager wasn’t able to recover the plane and was forced to eject at 8,500 feet. During the separation from the ejection seat the rocket nozzle hit his face shield breaking it, while the combination of the red hot nozzle and oxygen in his helmet produced a flame that burned his face and set several parachute cords on fire. Yeager was able to extinguish the flames with his glove hands and after the accident was hospitalized for two weeks. The accident was depicted in the book (and film of the same name) “The Right Stuff”. Another NF-104 flight almost ended in disaster on June 15, 1971, when Capt. Howard Thompson experienced a rocket engine explosion while trying to lit it at 35,000 feet and Mach 1,15: luckily Thompson made a safe lading to Edwards AFB using the normal jet engine. The program was terminated when it was decided that the aerospace training mission would be performed by NASA and the last NF-104 flight was performed in December 1971. During its service with the U.S. Air Force the highest altitude reached by an NF-104 was 121,800 feet, achieved by Maj. Robert Smith during acceptance testing. Today the last of the NF-104s is on static display in front of the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB. http://theaviationist.com/2015/04/10/nf-104a-aerospace-trainer-story/

F -35 is not better for Close Air Support than the F -16 and the Air To Air Combat is not better than the F - 22's . But the F -35 is a good fighter that does it all ... and that can not be compared to other other combat aircraft available on the market today , says an F- 35 pilot we talked to . During a visit at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona USA we met F -35 pilot Major John Wilson. Asked whether the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, can replace their A-10 Warthog relative to Close Air Support (CAS ) corresponds Major Wilson: http://krigeren.dk/pilot-f-35-kan-ikke-sammenlignes-med-andre-kampfly/ There is a John Wilson listed - hope its the same guy! http://www.codeonemagazine.com/f35_gallery_slideshow.html?aac6135311632f48e93827d190c71cac=3&gallery_id=114&gallery_style=3

DCS Spring 2015 Sale! Spring is here and it's time to reward yourself with some new DCS modules at great savings! Take advantage of this sale that runs from Thursday April 9th at 12:00 Moscow time to Monday April 13th at 12:00 Moscow time. http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/ DCS: Flaming Cliffs 3: $39.99 to $11.99 (70% off) DCS: A-10C Warthog: $39.99 to $11.99 (70% off) DCS: Black Shark 2: $39.99 to $11.99 (70% off) DCS: P-51D Mustang: $29.99 to $8.99 (70% off) DCS: Fw 190 D-9 Dora: $49.99 to $14.99 (70% off) DCS: Bf 109 K-4 Kurfürst: $49.99 to $14.99 (70% off) DCS: Combined Arms: $19.99 to $5.99 (70% off) F-15C for DCS World: $9.99 to $2.99 (70% off) Su-27 for DCS World: $9.99 to $2.99 (70% off) Su-27 The Ultimate Argument Campaign: $9.99 to $2.99 (70% off) A-10A for DCS World: $9.99 to $2.99 (70% off) Su-25 for DCS World: $9.99 to $2.99 (70% off) DCS: MiG-15bis: $49.99 to $19.99 (40% off) DCS: F-86F Sabre: $49.99 to $14.99 (70% off) DCS: UH-1H Huey: $49.99 to $14.99 (70% off) DCS: Mi-8MTV2 Magnificent Eight: 49.99 to $14.99 (70% off) DCS: C-101 Aviojet: $59.99 to $17.99 (70% off) DCS: MiG-21bis: $49.99 to $24.99 (50% off) Hawk T.1A for DCS World: $39.99 to $19.99 (50% off)

On Apr. 2 two U.S. B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers, one assigned to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, and the other assigned to Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, conducted round-trip missions from their home bases to the Arctic and North Sea regions respectively. The two bombers were taking part in “Polar Growl”, an exercise aimed at testing the ability of the aircraft and their aircrews to operate with international partners in the northern part of the globe. One of the aircraft, the one belonging to the 2nd Bomb Wing from Barksdale, flew in the North Sea and was intercepted multiple times by the Royal Canadian Air Force, the U.K. Royal Air Force and the Royal Netherlands Air Force. http://theaviationist.com/2015/04/07/dutch-f-16s-intercept-b-52s/

Switch it off

Ahh that sneaky Su-27 you thought you shot down has the nerve to fire a missile at you while you are doing the TopGun aileron roll of victory!

Um is Trueview on in the TiR profile?

Doesn't look very pro, unless pro today is the Win95 retro look.