Basic Prosecution of The BVR Fight
Basic Prosecution of The BVR Fight
desirable in this situation. While head on, keep a close eye on your range to
target, his aspect, and closure rate. You may launch at anywhere inside 20nm
and possibly acquire a kill, but generally speaking 12-15nm is preferred
depending on closure and aspect (aspect simply put is the number of degrees
you are off your targets nose). Launches at the longer ranges (15nm+) are
often successful in spooking the bandit just enough for him to go defensive,
which sometimes is an adequate resolution to the engagement, while ranges
closer than that dramatically increase your PK (Probability of Kill). In any
case, practice in Dogfight type engagements setup in Falcon for BVR will
allow you to find the range that you feel allows you both the highest chance
of a kill as well as highest chance of survival. With much practice that range
will greatly decrease.
Figure 1a: Depicts just prior to the launch and initial turn into the Beam. Notice Range: 14nm, Heading 181
degrees, Speed: 642 knots. Near Head On orientation to bandits. Jammer on.
better been paying close attention to his heading/aspect before going into
your turn. At this point the defensive maneuvers are begun.
Figure 1b: Nose down attitude, speed increasing extending from bandits. Heading, 274 degrees, nearly a
perfect beam (93 degrees of original heading of 181).Jammer off.
If your launch range approached 15nm, its a safe bet that the Slotback
has launched on you. Remember, always defeat the threat, and when a
missile is launched it becomes the threat and the launching aircraft should be
secondary in your mind. but still on your mind.
Once the Bandit is Beamed several actions must be performed as
quickly as possible in order to ensure survival. Any Jammer in use MUST be
turned off. Negating closure rate to a radar guided missile, while making you
invisible to the missile, does nothing to hide the emissions your ECM pod is
broadcasting, and the AA-12 is very capable of locking on to those
emissions in HOJ (Home on Jam) mode. At the same time a nose down
(anywhere from 10-20 degrees is sufficient), full mil to AB attitude should
be established while scanning visually for the missile and several bundles of
chaff should be pumped out. This serves a couple purposes.
First, it increases your energy state as you increase your speed,
sometimes upwards and past 800kts+. By this time, the missiles motor is
sure to have burned out and it is strictly an energy fight at this point. The
drastic increase in your speed helps diminish the missiles closure rate,
Figure 1c: The Beam is established and maintained at this point, maintaining a heading roughly 270 degrees
off from original at full/AB. Missiles are effectively beaten and need only be outrun at this point prior to
reengagement.
A visual target, and this applies to aircraft as well as missiles, that has
no relative motion (i.e. it is not moving in your canopy) is on a collision
course for you (also known as a lead pursuit). With this information at hand
we can deduce that if the missile is visually moving to your aft, it has lost its
lock on you and is now without a target, or at the very least, you are not its
current target. If this is the case, maintaining your defensive stance and
current heading or a turn into the missiles point of origin, should spoof the
missile entirely.
Should the relative motion be towards your nose, a high G turn into
and past the missile should be enough to place it behind you with no hope of
reacquiring you.
In the case of no relative movement, it should be considered tracking
you, regardless of RWR information. At this point you are in a position of
considerable advantage as the missile has been nearly depleted entirely of
any sort of effective energy and a well timed high G turn into or above the
missile will effectively beat the missile.
Figure 1d: View from inside the pit of visual acquisition of inbound AA-12.
At this stage in the fight the high G maneuver performs two functions:
It burns off even more energy from the missile putting it in an energy state,
hopefully, where it may become effectively unable to close in near enough to
cause damage. Secondly, at shorter ranges the cone of vision of the radars
seeker is very narrow, and the high G maneuver increases your chances of
moving out of the field of view of the radar.
The Beam tactic, as effective as it might be, carries with it some
serious disadvantages. Primarily, in performing the maneuver, you
effectively lose radar lock and greatly diminish your chances of visually
acquiring the Slotback, preventing you from going defensive or even reengaging it should your initial launch miss its mark. Should this be the case,
you will find that unless the Slotback disengaged, he will still be in your
forward hemisphere and looking to reacquire you. At this point you will be
in a seriously disadvantaged situation: low to the ground with minimum look
up capability and most likely tumbleweed as to the Slotbacks posit, while
he has spent the time of your maneuver looking for you. The Beam tactic is
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good for a defensive disengagement, but poor on offense after your initial
launch.
The Drag
The Drag concept is the most simple of the options and
should be learned to proficiency first. It offers a high chance of survival,
however it also diminishes you ability to maintain accurate Situational
Awareness, and by its very nature forces you into a very defensive stance.
The technique involves a mid to max range shot on the bandits (1220nm miles) and a Split-S maneuver to reverse and extend from the
incoming threat (the AA-12). This is most effective in a nearly head on
engagement.
Figure 2a: Initial setup for the Drag. Head on engagement, range 14nm, positive radar contact on lead bandit.
Heading 182, speed well above corner speed. Jammer on.
event, once your AMRAAM is off the rail a negative Split-S maneuver is
performed, reversing your course 180 degrees, accompanied by several
bursts of chaff.
Figure 2b: The offensive launch has been performed and the Split-S is commenced, reversing heading, increasing
kinetic energy state. Jammer is off.
you and the missile (leaving you as a still very lucrative target in front of the
chaff) the chaff are now independent targets while your aircraft is quickly
trying to exit the cone of sight of the hostile missile.
Once a reverse heading is established, maintain a 10-15 degree nose
down attitude, preferably in full AB, for the drag. At this point the inbound
missile will be just a few miles aft of you in full pursuit, with more than
likely a solid lock on your aircraft. Regardless of the lock, you have a very
high chance of defeating the missile in the energy fight. All that is left to do
ideally is to maintain best possible forward speed until the hostile missile
has lost all its energy and drops from the sky. Should enough distance still
separate you and the missile at this point, it will be likely that the hostile
aircraft is still locked on to you and guiding the missile, as the missile hasnt
closed within range to go active with its own radar guidance (pitbull).
Figure 2c: View from the AA-12s as the Drag is finished, leaving the aircraft only needing to maintain speed and
heading as the missiles lose energy and ultimately, the fight.
The benefit in this is that one of two things may happen, either the
launching bandit must go on the defensive leaving its missile blind and
searching, or your AMRAAM will destroy the hostile, again leaving the
missile blind and searching. In either event the hostile missile still has the
opportunity to reacquire you, but youve gained another few valuable
seconds in the fight.
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During the drag, its advisable to scan your aft hemisphere for the
missile. When the maneuver is performed flawlessly, simply out running the
missile will beat the missile. However, rarely in a high threat environment
do things go exactly as planned. Padlocking the missile will allow you to
decide whether you have the missile beat, or if a high G maneuver as
described in the above section is needed.
Figure 2d: The inbound AA-12 is visually acquired, however being directly on the aircrafts 6 oclock makes padlocking
impossible. The missile is outlined in red, barely noticeable even at this range.
As with the Beam tactic, the Drag is enormously effective and very easily
executed. If timed correctly and performed at just the right range, a CAT III
loaded F-16 can easily dispense of two Slotbacks, with a high chance of
survival. The Drag is also the most reliable tactic with regards to evading
multiple missile launches as it keeps all missiles launched at you in your rear
hemisphere with little to no change in heading on your part to evade.
Effectively, this lines up the multiple missiles directly behind you and you
need only use the same tactic to spoof them all.
The downside, again as with the Beam, is the immediate loss of radar
contact, situational awareness and most hope of visually acquiring your
bandit. Should the bandit evade your launch, The Drag places him in your
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While the Beam and Drag are primarily defensive in nature the
remaining two tactics offer a more aggressive engagement that allow for
maintaining SA and an offensive stance.
The Offset
The Offset is first and foremost a missile evasion technique. When
performed correctly it allows for a high chance of survival while at the same
time maintaining the highest PK possible. SA is maintained, and
reengagement if necessary is possible in an offensive position with regards
to both BVR and transitioning into a WVR fight.
Again begin with a lock at ranges preferably greater than 20nm,
ideally with the bandit roughly off your nose. At roughly 14-15nm,
contingent on aspect, speed and closure, launch your Slammer. Throughout
this maneuver you will maintain radar lock until well past the time your A120 goes autonomous, further increasing your PK.
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Figure 3a: The aircraft is in perfect position to implement an Offset maneuver. Head on, 14nm range, and at high corner
speed (440Kts), Jammer on. Note heading of roughly 230.
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Figure 3b: The initial Offset is seen here, after launch, establishing a left offset roughly 50 degrees left of original
course (180). Once wings level, the pilot will immediately go to visual scanning for the AA-12 (in this example a AIM120 is being used as the hostile missile), also shown here. Music and Radar off, as the remainder of the maneuver is
strictly visual, until reengagement.
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Figure 3c: The high G turn opposite of original offset angle to a heading of 240 beats the missile entirely.
Should the initial Aim-120 launch miss its target, the hostile aircraft
will be somewhere in the forward quadrant in a perfect position for either
another Aim-120 launch, or an intercept into a WVR fight. To be sure a
quick scan visually before referring back to the radar scope is advisable. In
either event, the follow up is relatively simple as the bandit is sure to be
either still performing or just recovering from his defensive maneuvers.
When dealing with multiple missiles inbound, some issues arise with
this tactic. If the missiles are launched relatively close together, the Offset
should defeat them both. But as the distance between the lead and any
missiles in trail increases so does the trailing missiles ability to correct for
and maintain its lead pursuit. Extreme distances between missiles may allow
for a follow up Offset to be performed, in the opposite direction, to spoof the
second missile.
The Offset relies entirely on a visual acquisition of the hostile missile
and as a result some practice is required to be able to not only consistently
acquire such a small object but to become proficient at judging just the right
moment to offset opposite and beat the missile. This sort of practice should
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Figure 4a: The roughly 120 degree roll dive is shown here, inducing a turn placing the AA-12 high and at 10 oclock.
The Chaff is clearly visible as well.
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Figure 4b: The missile is visually acquired by this point and the defensive over-the-top maneuver is commenced.
Shortly before impact, a climbing turn above and into the missile is
executed, defeating the missile. The premise is the same as with the Offset,
yet a vertical element is introduced, which further helps to spoof the missile
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Figure 4c: The combination of both the high G turn and steep climb effectively beats the missile in the energy fight.
This maneuver offers the same benefits at the same cost as the Offset,
while additionally keeping the bandit forward of you and above you, making
visually reacquiring him much easier should further engagement be required.
Essentially these basics are most useful in 1v1 and 1v2 encounters.
Learning to forsake the radar guidance until pitbull and trust that the
AMRAAM will find its mark, assuming no friendlies are in the proximity,
allows for quick ripple shots on multiple hostiles prior to commiting to
defensive maneuvers for an acceptably diminished PK at the same time
dramatically increasing your chance of survival.
In situations of 1v3+, variations of these tactics can be used with the
teamwork of your flight. For example, the Drag can be altered into a
pinwheel or Drag and Tag type attack. Lead and wing go into a 3-5 mile
trail formation, and lead executes his Drag maneuver. As the Lead is
disengaging, the AI flight is most likely still focused on him as their primary
threat, leaving the wing free and uncovered, close in to more lethal range
before his extension.
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