F15 Game
Mudspike contributor Bryan AKA Sryan first added this excellent DCS F-15 Guide in our forums and we felt it deserved the biggest audience possible, so we’ve added it as a Reference article here. Thanks Sryan!The F-15 is a great plane to get started with about air combat in DCS world. Taking only weeks to months to master her avionics and systems, compared to the years most of us need for a full DCS module.
It’s also a fun plane to unwind in after flying the more complicated DCS aircraft. I specialised this guide into combat applications. So things like landing it, starting up or how to navigate is best learned elsewhere, like in the manual. I wrote the guide so that someone transitioning from civilian sims or aerobatics can still understand everything. So some things may appear very mundane to the more experienced here.
There are many functions in the F-15, and many of them are useful in combat. I recommend you set up some or most of those to your stick and throttle, depending on what you have and what you’re comfortable with. But for your convenience I’ll add the default keyboard commands for most of them. I will also repeat abbreviations often in order to allow yourself to get used to them. Let’s get started, shall we?
INTRODUCTION: COCKPIT AND FUELLet’s take a look at what cockpit elements are useful in combat, besides the HUD. Starting from the bottom left and then following clockwise we are seeing the:. MPCD (Multipurpose Color Display) Useful as it displays current stores and remaining countermeasures and ammunition. VSD (Vertical Situation Display) The ‘radar’ screen.switching over to the right side we now see the:.
TEWS (Tactical Electronic Warfare System) but let’s call it the RWR (Radar Warning Receiver). CMS (Counter Measure Systems) lights. The fuel indicationPerhaps you did not expect the fuel indication in a combat guide, but I thought it would be a useful place to start. After all, no plane gets very far without fuel. A fighter that can fly very far can be useful, and for that reason alone the Russians put over 8 metric tons of fuel in some of their models.
Spm album son of norma. Fuel has disadvantages though. It’s heavy, and heavy things tend to be slow and unmaneuverable. Not very good attributes for a fighter.
The United States Army Air Corps already had a solution for this during the second world war. These drop tanks allow the F-15 to have decent range, while retaining maximum maneuverabilty and speed in combat. In order to read the level of fuel in the drop tanks, we need to put the system on external. The marked grey knob is operated with SHIFT-D. The red marked displays then read the amount of fuel in the drop tanks.
There is also a display that reads the total amount of fuel carried. And an analogue system that reads fuel carried internally. It’s important to note that this analogue indicator only measures up to 12 000 pounds! In reality, more fuel can be carried internally, up to around 13 500 pounds.
So if the analogue indicator starts spinning backwards, the drop tanks should have been dropped long ago. This is why it is best to work the grey knob and check drop tank fuel level actively instead of waiting for the analogue system to do its job. The presence of drop tanks or not is indicated on the MPCD (Multi-purpose color display).
In this case I dropped my external tanks. But kept my central fuel tank. You can see this because the outboard indicators say “PYLON” while the central indicator says “FUEL”.
You can drop your tanks by pressing CTRL-W. Be careful not to hit that to many times or you will also start dropping stores!
You can also drop all three tanks at once with ALT-R. This way you also don’t need to worry about dropping stores. If you still think you’re to heavy to accomplish the mission, you can dump more fuel by holding R. While we are here, it is useful to see that the top-left also has an indication for amount of gun ammo left.
And the amount of chaffs and flares remaining on the top-right.I’ll discuss the rest of the cockpit elements when the time is right. WEAPONSThe F-15 is capable of carrying 4 different types of weapons. The AIM-120, the AIM-7, the AIM-9 and the M61 Vulcan.The AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile is the most modern, most advanced, most important weapon found on the F-15. Its most important attribute is that it carries a so called active radar. This means that after the missile is fired, it will communicate with the F-15 for some time, through a datalink. This allows the AMRAAM to change it’s course in mid-flight.
After a certain moment has passed, called “pitbull”, the AMRAAM activates its own radar and continues the flight on its own. The F-15 can drop the lock and engage something else, or defend itself against missiles or other bandits. If the lock is lost in mid-flight. The AMRAAM will remember the last calculated spot and go active (pitbull) there anyway. HUD modes: AACQ (Auto Acquisition)Auto Acquisition modes are the easiest to fly and fight with. In these modes, the radar or weapon will lock on the first target in sight. The maximum range is about 10 to 15 nautical miles.
The first one I want to talk about is vertical auto acquisition. You can enter this mode by pressing “3”. Note that in vertical AACQ you can lock targets that are even higher than the steel ring where the mirrors are mounted. Here’s the HUD indication for Vertical AACQ for, in order, the Sparrow (AIM-7), the Sidewinder (AIM-9) and the AMRAAM (AIM-120)The next one is bore-sight mode. This pretty much speaks for itself. A small circle on the HUD indicates what part of the HUD you need to put over the target. The range is the same.
Again the HUD symbology for the Sparrow, Sidewinder and AMRAAM.The sidewinder also has a couple of his own Auto Acquisition modes. These can by cycled by pressing “6”. The first one I want to talk about is the Seeker Caged mode. You typically enter this mode the first time you press 6. The seeker-head is fixed and cannot move.
This allows for some very specific targeting, per example if you’re engaging a package of enemies and you need to engage the highest threat. The last sidewinder specific AACQ mode is the seeker slaved mode. In this mode the radar is active as well.
If the radar finds a target, it will direct the Sidewinder seekerhead to the target. This allows by far the longest locking distance for the Sidewinder, up to around 18km in my experience.
Note that the radar is on, though. You’ll appear on the RWR of your enemy, but they won’t be warned should you choose to launch.
You go into this mode by being in a Sidewinder AACQ mode in the first place and then pressing ” i “. Let’s start from the bottom left.
Do you still know what that means? Two AMRAAMS of the C model. Below that you will find your speed, expressed in Mach. Below that also your g-loading and the maximum G-force you can endure in that configuration.On the bottom right, in the orange box, you’ll see the exact range to the target, the time it would take for your missile to strike the target if it was fired now, and the aspect to the target. The important thing to know about aspect if it’s H for Head-on, T for Tail aspect, L for Left aspect (you are looking at the left side of your target and as such he is travelling to the left) or R for right aspect (vice versa).On the right, along the altitude-tape, you’ll find another range indication.
On the top of that you’ll see the scale. In this case the top of the scale indicates 10 nautical miles. The top stripe on the scale indicates Rpi. This means Range Probable Intercept. At this range you should be able to hit a target that won’t attempt to manoeuvre to defend itself. A bit lower on the left of the scale we find the Caret This is the exact position of the target on the range. The number next to it indicates the rate of closure.
In this case 535 knots. If this number is negative, the target is getting away from you.
The next stripe means RTR. Range Turn and Run. A target pulling 9g moves or even turning around and trying to get away should still be intercepted by the weapon.
On the bottom we see another indication for the minimum range.In the middle we’ll see a large circle. This is called the ASE circle. ASE stands for Allowable Steering Error.
We also see a small dot, that I boxed in a light blue rectangle. This is called the ASE dot. The more centered the dot is, the better the shot will be and the less the missile will have to steer right after launch, which is a waste of energy. Remember the saying “For the best shot, center the dot”. The ASE circle can grow or shrink depending mostly on range.
Attached to the circle we see a line that indicates the target direction of travel. This is what you see when you locked a target in Gun AACQ (Auto Acquisition)the + high on top of your HUD is your boresight. This is where your bullets will go.
The computer draws a line to the circle, which is where your bullets will be at the range of the target. The system is very intuitive, put the circle over the target in order to shoot him down.
Note the thicker part on the circle, this is a visual indication of the range towards the target. Use the size of the target and this indication to judge if the range is good to shoot. Beyond Visual RangeFor BVR, we’ll need to use the VSD (Vertical Situation Display, radar display) a lot.
Let’s take a look, shall we? The Radar display is divided into ranges.
On the top-right. We see 40, that means the top line is 40 nautical miles away. The next line is then 30 miles away, the one below that 20, the next one 10 and the last one zero. If the Top right indicated 80 it would have been 80-60-40-20 and if it had said 160 it would have meant 160-120-80-40. Targets that are further away than the scan distance may still be shown along the top of the VSD display. Along the left side we see 18 and 0. This means that at the distance of the TDC (Target Designation Cursor) the radar scans between an altitude of 18 000 and 0 feet.
Note that technically the radar points lower than that. So targets who are closer at low altitudes can still be spotted. You can slew the TDC around with “./;”. One bandit is close-by and beaming me. Meaning the direction he is travelling in is perpendicular to my own. Another bandit is further away but he’s hot, meaning he is coming straight at me! Meanwhile, on the VSD.
On the bottom left we constantly see some sort of indication pulsingMED/HI/MED/HI/MED/HI/MED/HI/MED/HI/MED/HI/MED/HI/This is your PRF ( Pulse repetition frequency). A beautiful Wikipedia article was written about PRF, and I’ll save you from explaining exactly what it means right now. What you need to understand is that High PRF is good for detecting targets that are coming straight at you, even at longer ranges.
A Medium Pulse Repetition Frequency is good for detecting targets that have a low closure rate, but not at high distances.Let’s see what we get to see in the VSD (Vertical Situation Display), shall we? This time I’ve put her on High PRF. Now we can see the bandit at 44 miles (Note the top right!! The bars now mean 80-60-40-20!). No sight of that bandit just of my nose beaming me.You should use your SA (Situational Awareness) to dictate what mode you’re in. If you should expect a long range head-on, use high.
If you expect to merge or fight a beaming bandit, use MED. It may be ‘easy’ to just leave it on ILV ( Interleaved, pulsing med-high) but it may be a bad idea. It would take a long time to scan the same airspace, in the same mode. Allowing bandits to get close and then not allowing a lock because the airspace is scanned in the wrong mode. Beyond Visual range: Lock-on!Let’s proceed to lock the target again.
The amount of information will be enormous again. Let’s calmly follow a clockwise pattern and use colour coded arrows to indicate what we’re talking about. Some things are duplicate with what we’ve seen on the HUD. I’ll say the value the indication reads out and then explain what it means. Red arrows. 397, This is the speed of your target. Indicated in TAS (True Airspeed).
11R. Aspect again.
I am looking at the right side of this target. 336, The targets course.Right side, brown arrowsIt’s important to realise that all these symbols are related to range. The top arrow is pointing at some sort of triangle. This means Raero. Or Range Aerodynamic.
This is the maximum distance the weapon can travel. Think of it as the distance the missile would fall on the ground or water if fired right now. 879, This the rate of closure, as well as the position of the target on the range scale. Like on the HUD if the value is negative he is getting away from you. The is called a caret. the This is called Rpi.
This means Range Probable Intercept. It’s also on the HUD.
You will strike a target at this range that will not attempt to maneuvre to dodge the weapon. The top of the box indicates the start of Rtr. Range Turn and Run. Targets doing 9g or trying to get away should still be destroyed if the caret is inside the box. the bottom indicates minimum range for the weapon to fire.Bottom.
Grey arrowsIn order to keep up with the clockwise pattern, we’ll do right to left. M7SEC means that if fired now, the missile should impact in 7 seconds. IL76.
The F-15 is equiped with a piece of technology called NCTR ( Non-Cooperative Target Recognition) Allowing it to detect the type of aircraft you are targetting. A lot of times, and very often at long range, this place will say UKN (Unknown). G 719 indicates your own speed. Indicated in knots as ground speed. STT means Single Target Track. So only capable of following one target, but in high quality, this opposes TWS (Track While Scan), we’ll get to that later.Left, Yellow arrownot much on this side fortunatly! This means the target flies at 13 100 feet altitude.Center, Turquoise indications.
ASE circle and ASE dot. ASE means Allowable Steering Error. Still remember this from the previous chapters? For the best shot, Center the dot.
Something that looks like —– This is the target. With direction of travel.
Keep on the Display at all costs if possible.SHOOT, SHOOT! When the F-15 computer thinks you are in a good position to take a shot, it will display a small star below the target box. The yellow arrow indicates where. Note that it may still be a bit to far as the F-15 is ‘okay’ with a shot at Rpi ( Range Probable Intercept) against fighters.When a missile is airborne, the G indications dissapear. Two numbers appear, marked by red arrows. If firing an AMRAAM, the left number means time to pitbull.
How much time is left untill the missile goes active and the lock can be dropped. The right number means time to impact. Beyond Visual Range: Track While ScanThe next chapter is about Track While Scan. You can enter TWS mode by pressing RCTRL i. You can only use TWS in narrow mode.
TWS has a few advantages. When firing an AMRAAM, the RWR of the enemy will not indicate so untill Pitbull.
It’s possible to lock several targets at once. It’s possible to engage several targets at once with AMRAAMs. You’ll get a limited amount of info about all enemies.
More informative so than RWS (Range while scan, the default radar mode)I’ll explain TWS with a practical example. We’ll see the TEWS (Tactical Electronic Warfare System) Display, although we’re going to call that RWR (Radar Warning Receiver) from now on. We also see the CMS (CounterMeasure System) lights. Let’s start with those, as those are easy.The CHAFF and FLARE lights stay on for up to 3 seconds after they have been dropped. You can drop both at the same time by pressing Q.
You can drop specifically flares by pressing DELETE and chaff by pressing INSERT. When the quantity of countermeasures gets low, the MINIMUM light goes on. Refer to the MPCD (Multipurpose Color Display) for exact quantities remaining.Electronic WarfarePerhaps you’ve ever seen an F-16 or A-10 passing by carrying some sort of pod. For the experts, I know not all of these are related to ECM, like the rather big one wich is for UHF on the spine of the aircraft.I’ll try to give a rather short description of what these do. We’ll call it ECM, for Electronic Countermeasures. Radar is good for two things. They’re right in the name of it.
RAdio Detection And Ranging. It can detect if there are things out there in the first place, and it can tell how far away it is. It’s mainly the last capability of radar that ECM messes with. Radar works by sending pulse of electromagnetic radiation which moves at the speed of light (which is also a form of electromagnetic radiation).
The speed of light is very high, but not infinitely high. About 300 000 000 metres per second. Or a bit over a billion kilometres per hour. The time it would take for a radar pulse to reach a target and come back is measured in microseconds, µs (pronounced as microsecond or musecond, mu is the greek letter µ). In order to hit a fighter jet at 50km distance with a radar pulse, and then travel back to the source takes 333µs.
So if there’s always 333µs between sending a pulse and receiving it back, you figured out the range to target.But what if, just for fun you know, started emitting the same pulses as the hostile aircraft? How much time does it then take for each pulse? Also wich sent pulse belongs to wich received pulse? I don’t know because I am receiving more pulses than I am sending out.You now have a basic understanding of ECM. It’s important to know that ECM does not conceal you in a layer of stealth or something. Quite the opposite. You’re being quite noisy and easily detected.
It’s just not possible to dial in the range. It’s possible to burn through ECM at close ranges, roughly WVR (Within Visual Range). The F-15 is also capable of destroying hostile jammers. Note that HOJ is printed on the screen in a very large fashion to warn the pilot he may be firing in some sort of degraded mode. All sort of important info like target aspect, range direction of travel etcetera are missing.
I’m Defensive: Infrared missiles!Explaining how to defend against IR missiles is easier to do so than radar guided missiles. IR missiles simply don’t give off any warning at all. You’ll find IR missiles mounted on short-ranged air defense (SHORAD) systems, on enemy fighters, on some helicopters, as shoulder fired weapons and as self-defense weapons on many aircraft like ground-attack planes. make some moves!
You should not expect to defeat a missile with just manoeuvres, but that doesn’t you should make it easy for the enemy. By doing manoeuvres you force the missile to follow you. This expends valuable energy for the missile. Drop a healthy amount of flares.
In combination with the above, you can make confusing patterns, maybe causing a missile to go for a flare instead. Drop out of afterburners! Who would target a flare if you can go for a juicy afterburner instead?I’m defensive! Radar guided weaponsIn this section I am going to explain how to defend against radar guided weapons.
Now I could tell you how to beam, what the 3-9 lines means, to deploy chaffs etcetera. But I thought it to myself.
What if I could really make you understand how a Pulse Doppler radar works? That would be more beneficial than letting you make arbitrary maneuvres without understanding reasons for succes or failure. With that in mind, I wrote the next chapter. It applies both on the defensive against most enemy radar guided weapons, as well as when on the offensive. After all, the F-15C is also equiped with a Pulse Doppler Radar. So recognize when an enemy uses information like this against you and act accordingly. Terminator Vision: How does a Pulse Doppler Radar see the world?Whoever has seen a Pulse Doppler radar, wether in real life or in pictures, could think they are pretty alien looking devices.
A large electronic piece of equipment, with wires and tubing coming in and out, and a large, often flat antenna at the end, wich usually has the ability to move. This all hidden in a nosecone that is completely translucent, but only to radiowaves.
Surely there can be no comparison to something as mundane as the human body?Technically, Radiowaves are waves of a type we call electromagnetic radiation. Another type of electromagnetic radiation is. Normal every day light. The very type coming of your screen right now. There are major differences ofcourse.
The cellphone right next to you can communicate with the closest cell tower with no problems, while your vision is limited to the very room you are in now. You cannot see very far in bad weather, but the radar at your local airport has every nearby airplane on their scope. In order to visualize the radar, I’m going to compress the wavelength, λ from metres into micrometers (µm) In order to allow you to see them!
Technically, a specific hue of yellow sits in the middle of the visible spectrum, but in order for the best contrast I’m going to ‘calibrate’ my radar to green.© NASA. However with only terrain as background we become nearly invisible! An important thing to remember is that it may take longer for a pulse to return from the background terrain than it would from your jet.
So under certain conditions ( either high altitude or at slant angles) The lock could possibly be maintained.For the next learning objective. I have a task for you to do. I want you to look up some images of 4th generation fighters.
The F-16, The F-15 (naturally) and also some newer or stealth designs. The F-117, the B-2, the F-22 and the F-35. I want you to take a good look at the air intakes especially.
Even to the untrained eye, it is apparent that the designers went through a great deal of effort, even on the 4th gen, to hide the first stage compressor blades, “the fan”. On the stealth designs, the fans are not visible at all from the outside. The fifth generation US/NATO fighters appear to have some sort of system that can block the view on the fans, called a which also has other benefits.
In-case you didn’t see any of those, I’ll provide one image. In this angle, the Warthog is approaching us and thus appears blue.
However, there is something special about the fans. Fans typically move at a high subsonic speed. In this angle, half of the blades are moving away from us,they appear red to our radar. The other half is approaching us, and appear Violet (You can think of violet like blue, but worse).
This effect is about as attention grabbing to the Pulse-Doppler radar as a poison dart frog is to your humanoid eyes. It is also an important component of the NCTR (Non-Cooperative Target Recognition) system.
The computer ‘understands’ these are the intakes and with other parameters, calculates the distance between them and compares this with a table of known aircraft models. The last thing is that the fan, by its very nature is, constantly moving. This means that whenever a new pulse arrives at the target aircraft. The fan will be in a different position.
Each and every pulse than has a chance to be reflected ‘perfectly’ of a fan blade. Increasing visibility. The chance is increased if the repetition frequency of the pulse is higher. What are you supposed to learn? The F-15 may give his position and presence away if flying directly at a hostile.
That’s the only way you can get to see the fans on the F-15.There is a weapon in your arsenal that allows you to defend yourself against radar. It’s called Chaff. Chaff are strips of aluminium, tin or plastic coated with a metal that reflect radar waves.
The purpose of this is to present ‘fake targets’ to the enemy. Chaff doesn’t fly very fast. It pretty much floats a few hundred milliseconds after it was dropped. Like all other non-moving objects, it appears green. This radar is not fooled by the enemy. Let’s hope the pilot had something nice to eat during his last meal because it was probably his last. Dropping chaff is near useless when approaching or receding from the enemy.
You can only hope a bundle of chaff blocks the radar from looking directly at you if you are receding. So what happens if we combine the knowledge with what we learned before? If we fly directly sideways and then deploy chaff?Jackpot! Add in background clutter and it will be even more effective! With my knowledge about Pulse-Doppler radars now shared, I’ll explain how to evade radar guided weapons.
The Radar Warning ReceiverSo here it is. The Radar Warning receiver. Can you guess which enemy is the closest? The Clam Shell appears to be the closest to me.
The MiG-29/Su27/33 seems to be a bit further of and that SA-15 the furthest away.It turns out they are all more or less an equal distance away. This is the first learning objective. The RWR cannot calculate any range. It just represents the received signal strength by placing it closer to the center. Some units (A50,E3,EWR) are always ‘stuck’ on the outer ring regardless of signal strength because they can never be a direct threat to you. Some units are more energetic in their emissions (Like the “clamshell”) compared to others (Search radar on an SA-15 Gauntlet)That SA-15 has got me locked!Looks like I got rid of him Or did I? The RWR has full 360° coverage but there are two large blindspots.
The RWR cannot detect targets directly above or below you in a 45° cone. By showing my belly to the Gauntlet I’m just exposing my blind side to him. The results.You’re in a tight spot. Two of these guys are trying to kill you, the other two are trying to save you, who do you run to cover for?If you ran to the left you would have lived. If you ran to the right, you might have died.But they’re all 15’s?Some of these 15’s have a chevron (^) over them.
That means they are airborne. These are F-15’s. The other guys don’t have that.
So they are SA-15 Gauntlets.Here we see 3 bandits illuminating me. The Bandit on my 8 ‘o clock is considered to be the highest threat by the RWR. It is not doing anything special just yet but the RWR thinks this is the most likely foe to take a shot at you. This is why it has a diamond around it.
The Bandit on my 5 ‘o clock was the last detected foe by my RWR. This why half a circle is drawn around this bandit.
When you hear the beeps that the RWR detects a new foe, you should look for this circle for bearing and identification. So far there is nothing special about the third bandit on my 2 ‘o clock.A bandit has me locked now.
If he decides to shoot, the bottom circle will flash. I often heard the question if people should beam the missile or the bandit. You should beam, if battlefield conditions allow, the source of radiation. This where the Doppler effect originates from. If an enemy aircraft is painting you, the radarwaves originate form that aircraft. Once the radarwaves reach you, they get ‘recolored’ depending on your movement. The missile then looks for these coloured waves.
In case of an active missile (AIM-120 or R-77) You should, again beam the source of radiation, so in that case the missile.Active radar missiles are indicated by an MOkay who the hell is targeting me? By pressing RSHIFT-R you can change the RWR mode so that only people locking on to you are shown! Great for quickly getting Situational awareness in a cluttered environment.Anti-Air Artillery is always shown with an A on the RWR. It could be friendly Gepards or PIVADS, it could also be a hostile Shilka, tread with caution.The only exception is the SA-19 Grison, also known as the Tunguska. This shows as S6 on the RWR.
The S6 should concern you. It has both guns and, currently the only in DCS but several systems like this exist, laser guided anti-air missiles. These missiles don’t give off any warning like heatseekers, except to planes equipped with a laser warning receiver like the A-10 and Ka-50.
These missiles can effectively reach out to about 8 to 10km.Remember that by keeping the radiation source perfectly on your 3 ‘o clock or 9 ‘o clock you have the best chance of defeating radar guided weapons, in combination with chaff. A few small random movements can help as the missiles will continually update their course in an attempt to intercept you. Some maneuvres may help defeating missiles, like the Immelmann or Split-S if battlefield conditions allow and the missile was fired close to its maximum range, but you should rarely expect to defeat missiles with maneuvres alone. They are typically way faster than you and can pull many more G forces than you can. Some more advanced knowledge about defeating radar weapons is embedded in the following examples.
F15 Action
Practical examples Long Range Fighting: A BVR fight.No two fights are ever the same. I thought I’d share my standard procedure on how to handle a BVR duel. You should adapt to the conditions though.
I like to compare BVR fights to ILS landings. When flying, it’s comfortable to look outside the aircraft and to the HUD for indications. What safer place to position an enemy than in the center of the HUD?
Like with ILS landings, this can be a deadly mistake. It may take some learning to get your face out of the HUD and relying on your instruments instead.
Let’s take a look at the situation. Try not to focus purely on the instruments either though. Keep track of what is going on outside as well and don’t get sucked into the green goo!An enemy aircraft. With the same speed and the same altitude.
We’re in a head-on. It turns out I was right. The killer AMRAAM strikes a few seconds before the suppressing AMRAAM. Advanced Practical Examples Hyperspeed kill.
Letting the Raytheon© brochure swell with pride.The situation is as follows: The Russians have conquered much of Georgia, However recent fighting has seen the depletion or destruction of much valuable equipment and ammunition. An IL-76 is inbound to resupply the Russians. Fearing rebel equipped with MANPADS supplied by NATO, the IL-76 cruises at high speed, at high altitude. An SA-10 Grumble side protects the airfield, and the Moskva cruiser is at sea (not visible, not even present really, but let’s pretend it is). The Russians are not concerned about any air attack. NATO commanders resenting the retirement of the F-14 and their AIM-54 Phoenix missile.
It’s up to the USAF to try the job using an F-15 with a pair of AIM-120 AMRAAMs. Even at the closest point, as the Candid turns to land at the airport, the “depth” inside the WEZ (weapons envelope zone) of the Grumble is over 40km. I just took off and am inbound, overland, from Turkey. It will be my job to produce a kill from outside the WEZ.
Having achieved just that I start to dive back down again. I have several reasons for this. By gently pushing the stick forward instead of choosing for an instantaneous turn I artificially lower my AoA (angle of attack). This reduces my drag allowing me to accelerate faster. The thin air does not really feed my engines enough oxidizer for optimum acceleration and the force of gravity can assist in my speed up. I proceed to slowly dive down to around 28 000 feet.
Until the air proves to thick to really accelerate in. F-15 doing a get away back to Turkish territories at 2768km/h True Airspeed.So what about that SA-10 Grumble?I never knew if I actually crossed into the SA-10 WEZ (Weapons Envelope Zone) or not.
I highly doubt it but you can never be sure. The SA-10 is no fool, however.
An F-15 approaching at over twice the speed of sound is going to cross the WEZ sooner rather than later, if he does at all. As faith would have it, the SA-10 decides the time is right took a shot right as my slammers (AIM-120) come of the rail.The SA-10 predicts that I maintain my course and enter the WEZ where the missile will be waiting for me. In the worst case I am forced to divert, disabling me from accomplishing my mission. Technically this would count as a successful mission completion for the Grumble, denying air superiority and power projected from the air. Or so he thinks. The SA-10 is a weapon I rather not take any chances with, as it is the second most potent anti-air weapon in the Russian arsenal, after the SA-21 which is not modelled in DCS. By choosing to dive, the SA-10 reacts by choosing a low altitude course to intercept me.
Let’s first discuss what advantages I deny by not allowing him an opportunity to climb. A fighter pilot who is low, but has speed, could choose to initiate a climb. This converts his speed into altitude. The pilot might think this is an agreeable deal. After all, altitude is useful, and it can be converted back into speed at the pilot’s command by diving. He trades his kinetic energy for potential energy.
A flying object which converts speed for altitude is like you converting your money for gold and oil. The return product is still valuable. This also counts for a surface to air missile.
Also, under typical conditions, you will never win a climbing duel with a missile.Let’s now take a look at the disadvantages the SA-10 faces by choosing a low altitude flight-path. I’ll start with a commonly known one. That would be drag. At low altitudes, drag is worse than at high altitude, because the air is denser. A flying object at low altitude must spend energy to push the air out of his way in order to allow him to get to his objective. This spends energy (more so than at altitude). This is like trading in your money for raw sewage.
Pushing air out of the way provides no benefits for flying objects, and neither does it for surface to air missiles.The next reason is probably not as known as drag. Before I mention the next hindering aspect on missiles related to altitude, I want to talk about air pressure. Air pressure is all around us. Take a look around the room, do you see any objects being destroyed by air pressure right now? Probably not.
So it’s probably not a significant force in air combat, right? A quick look around on the internet reveals some interesting stuff.Apparently the forces caused by air pressure are capable of doing unspeakable things, if allowed to manifest as is the case with a vacuum tank. At sea-level, the air pressure can exert a maximum force of about 10.1 Newtons on each squared centimetre, or about 101000 N/m². This is diminished as altitude increases. So how does this relate to air combat?
This was seen in the rocket equation by the fact that that the ambient pressure P0 needs to be deducted from the rocket pressure Pe in order for the rocket thrust equation to be correct.So whats the lesson for this chapter? If battlefield conditions allow, you should dive in order to defeat a SAM without delay. Every second that the missile spends at low altitude is advantageous. SAM motor burn times are measured in seconds, and every one of those spent burning at low altitude is advantageous. So do not hesitate if you detect a launch.