Flying a less capable fighter ?
Join Date: Oct 2006
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KG86: but I was led to believe that it was a ROE thing. The issue was that the biggest danger from an Air to Air engagement was from a blue on blue accident. So fighters could not use BVR weapons, but had to have a vis ident to positively confirm that their target was hostile.
Obviously not an issue for the Draken L-159 / A-4 pilots that scored 7 F-35 kills during Red Flag:
Via Twitter
More Red Flag 17-1 info, courtesy of Harris:
-105 air to air kills
-7 losses
-dropped 51 simulated weapons against SAMs, killed 49 of them
Via Twitter
More Red Flag 17-1 info, courtesy of Harris:
-105 air to air kills
-7 losses
-dropped 51 simulated weapons against SAMs, killed 49 of them
Join Date: Feb 2006
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So fighters could not use BVR weapons, but had to have a vis ident to positively confirm that their target was hostile.
Dogfights are a feature of symetrical (or near-symetrical) air warfare. The last example of such was probably vietnam or one of the arab-israeli conflicts. You might include the Falklands, but I'm not sure it qualifies because whilst the aircraft were comparable the argenitian aircrft were operating at the limit of their range and couldn't afford to get entangled in dogfights for long. I don't know enough about events between india and pakistan to know whether they may have examples that post-date this.
The recent engagements have ben very much asymmetrical in terms of air-action. Gulf War 1 *could* have been a symmetrical fight, but they declined the invite.
But the fact that our recent air-actions have been asymmetric doesn't mean that all future air actions will be the same, so it would be a mistake to base RAF doctrine on just the recent events - the same mistake that was made by Sandys and the same mistake that necessitated the Mirromar school. There are lots of very capable dogfighting aircraft out there, and Murphy says that we're bound to come into conflict with some of them sooner or later, so we must sustain the required skills and equipment to do so.
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The recent engagements have ben very much asymmetrical in terms of air-action. Gulf War 1 *could* have been a symmetrical fight, but they declined the invite.
But the fact that our recent air-actions have been asymmetric doesn't mean that all future air actions will be the same, so it would be a mistake to base RAF doctrine on just the recent events - the same mistake that was made by Sandys and the same mistake that necessitated the Mirromar school. There are lots of very capable dogfighting aircraft out there, and Murphy says that we're bound to come into conflict with some of them sooner or later, so we must sustain the required skills and equipment to do so.
€0.03 supplied,
PDR
Lowest fuel on recovery for me was 2 mins to dry tanks - luckily I had got rid of drag (2xAIM9L and 120x30mm) during the sortie! Mind you, it was my first ever night recovery, in peeing rain, under the duty CB. Beer tasted good though.
