ZONE 5 2

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to…ZONE FIVE.

I’m Dave Baranek, callsign Bio. I have twenty-five

hundred flight hours as an F-14 RIO and was a Topgun
instructor for two and a half years in the 1980s. Recently,
I’ve written several books that describe my experiences
as an F-14 RIO and fighter tactics and weapons instructor.
My website is topgunbio-dot-com.

The Navy started its fighter weapons school in 1969 to

improve the training of its fighter pilots and RIOs. The
program quickly showed its value with the dramatic improvement in the kill ratio over Vietnam. The
program has a continuing mission, working to improve US fighter tactics and ensuring that Navy and
Marine Corps fighter aircrews are among the best trained in the world.

I’ve teamed up with Reflected Simulations to bring the fighter tactics and weapons experience to DCS.
The title of this campaign, Zone Five, refers to the maximum afterburner of the engines in the F-14A.
You will be using max burner a lot in these engagements.

The time is 1987, shortly after F-16s joined the fleet of adversaries. To help introduce the new jet and
to further its mission, we arranged a fleet support program, inviting one aircrew from two squadrons
at Miramar and two squadrons at Oceana for a series of flights. You must be good, because you are
one of the pilots selected from Miramar.

Your name is LT Jim “Bozo” Kirby, your RIO is LT Frank

“Jester” Hohner, and you are from VF-28 Avengers. This part
is important: your callsign for the duration of this program is
Sniper 3. Your wingman, Sniper 4, is the VF-65 Buzzards
crew of pilot LT Ron “Hammer” Matthews and his RIO LT
Hank “Dice” Doorman. Sniper 1 comes from VF-4 Horsemen:
LT Kenny “Lingus” O’Brian and LT Ed “Vampire” McKlosky.
Completing your team is Sniper 2 from VF-221 Galactics: LT
Paul “Inch” Morgan and LT Tom “Lefty” White.

You have received several lectures to help you prepare for

these flights. I hope you were paying attention. You’ve also
had access to reference material on weapons and tactics.

You will fly eleven hops that increase in complexity, starting with one-versus-one, or 1v1, where you
will test your air combat maneuvering skills against a single bandit. You will progress through flights
where your section – two Tomcats – will perform realistic fighter missions and fight an increasingly
challenging bandit presentation. You will then move into division events, where you will be one of
four Tomcats against an unknown number of bandits. The program will conclude with two special
events that will be briefed later.

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You’ll be flying the F-14 Tomcat, the Navy’s

premier air-to-air platform. As you learned in
the RAG, you can never have enough thrust, so
energy management will be important no
matter which Tomcat variant you are flying.
RIOs will be working their magic with the good
ol’ AWG-9. While it’s not the newest radar in the
world it has proven capabilities. In keeping with
the 1987 setting, we will only use AIM-54s on a
few of these flights. In those days, the Phoenix
was mostly reserved for fleet air defense, but
that was changing.

Even with your impressive Tomcat, you must

execute precisely. We will challenge you during
the intercept phase and the engagement, and
we will evaluate all aspects of your performance. In the end, it will not be about winning or losing:
our goal is to make you better training officers so you can increase the combat lethality of your
squadron.

But, we also like to win, so…good luck.

We spent months putting this program together, and then last week Miramar informed us they will
be closed for flight ops for two weeks. I don’t know if they are installing a new sewer line or testing
atomic missiles. Fortunately, our Air Force brothers at Nellis are able to accommodate us.

So…welcome to Nellis. You’ll be spending the next three weeks weeks here, and you will spend a lot
of that time in…ZONE FIVE.

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CONTENT
These missions come with a lot of extra content to make them as immersive as possible. There are
nearly a thousand custom voice overs especially recorded for these missions, as well as a handful of
accurate custom skins. Each mission comes with special kneeboard cards, copied exactly from real
life ones that were used in the 1980s. Among them you’ll find mission cards, maps, ingress and
egress routes, radio channelization, Nellis procedures, local TACANS, navigation points and radio
frequencies as well as a few pages of F-14A checklists. These are also available as separate pdf files in
the campaign documentation folder (Mods/Campaigns/Zone 5/Doc). Make sure you study them
before each hop so that you know what you need to do.

You’ll find the same information in the briefing images at mission start, as well as some beautiful
photos taken by Bio in the 1980s. The briefings will be read out loud to you by Bio himself en route to
the range. Up to that point you only need to follow Nellis procedures as described in your cards. He
will also remind you of the training rules, and then debrief you on the way back.

GAMEPLAY
We came up with a syllabus that brings the essence
of a 1980s fighter weapons training program
straight to your computer. It’s a little shorter, and
we had to make a few compromises to make it work
with the limitations of DCS. We are, however,
confident that it’s the bee’s knees, and you will not
only be challenged, but learn a lot about pushing
your F-14 Tomcat to the edge of the envelope and
beyond. You will become a much more lethal F-14
pilot/ RIO after completing this campaign and that is
exactly our purpose.

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After startup, make sure you are on Channel 2. We’ve completely redone all ATC procedures with
custom voice overs, and you even have a working ATIS channel. You will be guided by on-screen
messages, and you can communicate using the spacebar, which is much more convenient than the
standard radio menu.

Once you start taxiing, Jester will read you the takeoff checklist. You can reply to each challenge by
pressing the spacebar. A copy of the checklist is among your kneeboard cards. Hold short at the
runway, and when the checklist is complete you or your flight lead can contact Nellis tower for
takeoff clearance.

After taking off, you climb out following the ingress route,
and if you are not the lead aircraft, you join up on the
other(s). Don’t fly faster than 350 KIAS, you’ll be needing
that JP-5. En route to the range, Bio’s voice will come up
and brief you on the specifics of the event, then remind
you of the training rules. After this, your flight will be
required to perform the g-awareness test, a 90 degree
turn both ways pulling at least 4 g-s, to prepare your body
for the engagements.

Then, Jester will walk you through the fence-in check to

make sure your Tomcat is ready for action. You can reply
to each challenge by pressing the spacebar. A copy of the
checklist is among your kneeboard cards. The missions
were designed with some safety buffer, but remember,
real life crews were very snappy about these checklists. If
you take too much time trying to figure out where each
knob or button is, you’re asking for trouble. The missions
were designed with a well prepared fighter pilot in mind.

Approaching Bighorn you will check in with Range Control (Blackjack). As you reach the gate, you will
check in with the Range Training Officer (Showtime), who will verify that your pod is tracking, ask you
to call ready, then announce fight’s on. It’s also time for your formation to spread out and get ready
for the intercept.

It is imperative that you are tuned to

both Showtime AND Blackjack’s freq
during the exercise (buttons 1 and 14).
Showtime will call kills, but Blackjack is
the one responsible for your safety, and
monitor hard deck or airspace violations.
Due to DCS limitations, the hard deck will
be only 500 feet, so…watch those
mountains. You will also be able to call
“Knock it off!” anytime using the F10
radio menu to terminate the engagement.
This may be needed if you approach
bingo, a training rule was violated, or you find yourself in an emergency situation where the safety of
the crew is at stake.

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Here is a brief overview of the syllabus:

In the first few fights forward quarter shots will not be valid. This means you need to maneuver
behind your opponent(s), and only then you can call a shot. If you do that before the merge, the
bandits won’t be harmed and you’ll just waste a missile. The first 1v1s will be multiple engagement
hops. This means that the engagement will be repeated if fuel permits. Later on you will be running
intercepts, but you may be required to visually identify your target before opening fire, just like it
could happen in real life situations. Starting at hop 5 you will be given a specific mission, such as
BARCAP, sweep or escort. This will influence your tactics and game plan. We will throw in more and
more bandits, and put you into increasingly complex situations.

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One of the speed bumps we lay in front of you is the

wildcard. During an intercept everyone tends to get
buried into their displays, but this is when an
unseen bandit can sneak up on you and catch you
with your pants down. So we may or may not throw
in an unexpected bandit waiting to bounce you. For
the purpose of the training you don’t need to defeat
the wildcard. If you spot the wild card, turn to
counter the threat and be sure to call him out
immediately using the F10 radio menu. As soon as
you hear a reply from Showtime to "continue", he
will disengage. If you fail to spot him in time, one of
the fighters will be kill removed (maybe even you),
then the wild card will disengage. A 2v4 can quickly
become a 1v4 if you don’t keep your scan outside of
the cockpit during the entire intercept run. It’s possible that you won’t meet a wildcard, but as of
mission 5 it MAY be there anytime, so keep your head on a swivel.

In hops 7, 9, and 11 you will be required to fly through the Echo range before the intercept begins,
and evade simulated SAM launches between Bighorn and India. In DCS these will be real SAM
launches, but the Fighters will be immortal during this phase. Practice SAM evasion, but if you do get
hit you won’t be kill removed, just keep flying toward point India, the mission is still on. Of course,
you need to run the gauntlet once again on the way back to the gate too.

Everyone needs to manage their own fuel. If you approach bingo just bug out or call knock it off. In
real life at Miramar, landing at Yuma or El Centro to refuel was a possibility. In this game we added a
few Air Force tankers on station, should your tapes be alarmingly low, but with proper fuel
management they shouldn’t be needed. On the way back, Bio will do a quick debrief, and you can
think about your learning points.

At point RAMM you or your flight lead will

contact Nellis approach, then set up for the initial
for the overhead pattern. Check your kneeboard
cards and the documentation to make sure you
do it right. At Nellis you always fly the initial to
the inside runway. So if you are cleared for
runway 21 left, you fly the initial over 21 right.
Reform echelon left, then halfway down the
runway the flight lead breaks right, followed by
the rest of the flight in 15-20 second intervals. If
you are flight lead you will be required to kiss off
your wingman using the spacebar. Once
downwind, Jester will go through the landing
checklist, and call abeam. After landing, clear the
runway following the Tower’s instructions, and
then find your way back to your parking spot.

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The missions can be completed in 2 different ways:

1) You return to Nellis, land, and come to a full stop anywhere.

2) You use the “Skip mission” option under the F10 radio
menu, which we added for your convenience

A sound will play and a message will be displayed if you meet any of
these criteria.

Training rules
Let’s review the training rules.

We need five miles visibility and 15 thousand feet between cloud layers.

Hard deck is 500 feet. Soft deck is five thousand feet. There’s no slow-speed high-AOA maneuvering
below the soft deck. Of note: these numbers are for the game; the decks in actual flying are higher.

You need to perform a G-awareness maneuver before starting ACM.

All aircraft need operable UHF, and ICS if 2-seater, and must monitor Guard. NORDO aircraft rock
your wings and proceed to Coyote B, orbit at 15 thousand feet. If no one joins on you, follow the
NORDO recovery procedures in the in-flight guide. Remember, monitor Showtime and Blackjack
frequencies while on the range.

There’s a 500-foot bubble around all aircraft. Nine thousand feet is the minimum for head-on AIM-9
shots. There’s a thousand-foot minimum for guns, and no head-on gun shots.

Head-on, pass left-to-left, but don’t cross flight path to get there.

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Nose-high aircraft goes high.

Up-sun aircraft responsible for collision avoidance.

Offensive aircraft monitor the altitude of a defensive aircraft.

Don’t make blind lead turns.

Echo all knock it off calls.

If someone’s approaching guns on you, don’t dispense flares.

An additional note: Monitor your fuel closely and remember we have two tankers on station if you
get low fuel. The details are on your kneeboard cards. There’s no need to push the limits.

Now take a minute to go through the stall/spin procedures for your aircraft.

Practice
If you’re itching for a good fight but you don’t want to fly an entire mission, we included 3 instant
action practice scenarios. They’ll drop you straight into the fight, and you can fly and refly them to
polish your skills.

- 1v1 guns
- 1v1 AIM-9
- 2vunk

You can find them under DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\campaigns\F-14A Zone 5 Campaign

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classroom
In real life, participants of such a training course don’t only log long hours at the range pulling g-s, but
also in the classroom, expanding their theoretical knowledge to help them better prepare for the
flights. This is not part of the Zone 5 campaign, however, we collected a few resources for you, in
case you’d like to learn more.

For starters, make sure you subscribe to Bio’s Youtube channel for interviews and some cool original
Tomcat footage: https://www.youtube.com/user/dandlb

Here are some that you should not miss:

Bio talks about Tomcats and Topgun with DCS enthusiasts:

https://youtu.be/K2QHZWH7FrU

https://youtu.be/0EwVj7NlDaA

Bio’s ‘Tomcats and Topgun’ presentation at the Applied Physics Laboratory:

https://youtu.be/zHUbR3mst18

DCSNZA live training event with Bio: https://youtu.be/ZRhbYw3HSco

Original 1v1 BFM training from the 1970s: https://youtu.be/7RaMp2r7eWI

Some more Topgun footage from the 1970s: https://youtu.be/r0wXvxXQ_RQ

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CREDITS
Before we sign off, we would like to acknowledge the people who helped bring Zone 5 to life:

Jester was voiced by Grayson Frohberg.

Bozo was Erik Polta.

Hammer was Steve-oh ninety-nine.

Dice was Michael Youngblood.

Vampire was Jim Alfredsen.

Lefty was Brandon Tedesco.

Bandit was Jack McPeek from JM Aviation Art www.facebook.com/JMaviationart2020

The other bandit was Steve Williamson

Nellis Ground Control was Justin Watson,

Nellis Tower was Steve "Mongo" Joppich.

Nellis Approach and Departure were Darrell Pritchard.

Blackjack was Michel Saucier.

Showtime was Anthony Latronica.

F-14 skins by Reflected.

A group of DCS enthusiasts from virtual carrier air wing eleven tested the prototype. They were
(name), (name), etc.

Finally, a special thanks to former F-14 pilot and Topgun instructor Paul Nickel for providing
comments on some of the material.

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RECOMMENDED READING
If this campaign raised your interest in the F-14 and Topgun, there are some books I can
wholeheartedly recommend:

- Topgun Days by Dave Baranek

- Before Topgun Days by Dave Baranek
- Tomcat RIO by Dave Baranek
- Topgun: An American Story by Dan Pedersen
- Clashes: Air Combat over North Vietnam 1965-1972 by Marshall L. Michel III
- Scream of Eagles by Robert Wilcox
- TOPGUN: The US Navy Fighter Weapons School: Fifty Years of Excellence by Brad Elward
- F-14 Tomcat: Grumman's "Top Gun" from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf by David F. Brown

Tomcats forever!

Bio & Reflected

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