Jammer Basics The jammer works very well in AA combat as it does against older SAM's, but only if used correctly. Here's what it can do for you in a simple example. A good human pilot with a jammer facing a good human pilot without as jammer will have the ability to deny first lock first launch capability if his opponent is in a similar platform (F16 versus F16 both with slammers). Whilst this doesn't guarantee first kill, it is a distinct advantage. If I fire a missile at 22 miles before the other guy gets a lock and can fire a missile at me, he is immediately at a disadvantage and has some choices to make rather quickly. He can continue to charge straight at me in hopes of getting to burn through and getting a shot off, while at the same time running the risk of being killed by my early launched slammer, or he can choose to defend against the incoming shot, which will then more than likely miss, but thus allow me the opportunity to close for a much higher Pk follow up shot which will be more difficult to defeat. Either way he dies! A jammer works best from head on or tail aspect and within a certain altitude difference. It is pretty ineffective in the beam. To test if the jammer works and how it works, go BVR with a human opponent (both of you in F16's to make everything equal) first with and then without a jammer. Fly straight at each other. Without jammer, you'll get a first radar contact at about 50 miles. Before this you'll see nothing. The contact, once it appears, stays on your scope without jumping around. You can't get a bug at this range, but you can get an altitude by putting the radar cursors over it. With jammer, you'll see a jamming contact from perhaps 80 miles, but you cannot bug it and cannot get altitude readout from the cursors. The contact will "strobe" or jump around the B scope. You'll have no idea what range he's at until he gets closer. You can bug or lock from 40 miles of more if your opponent is without jammer. With jammer, the jammer will prevent a radar from locking on you for a certain length of time, but eventually as the range closes, the attacking radar will "burn through" the jamming and acquire a lock. The distance it does this is dependant on the power of your jammer and the power of his radar, together with any variables such as aspect and altitude difference that affects the performance of the attacking radar. Mostly it will be about 20 miles, known as "burn through". Use of jammer outside 20 miles will deny a bug or lock and deny a missile launch unless you wish to fire maddog, which outside of 20 miles has a very low Pk. The slammer has a home on jamming (HOJ) capability, but it needs to know where your target is in order to go HOJ. This means you must bug a target

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first by getting to burn through range. If your opponent is foolish enough to keep his jammer on once inside burn through distance, he's no longer denying first lock, first launch, but instead he's acting as a slammer homing beacon. So when your opponent is only 20 miles away from you, turn off your jammer. The jammer is an active emission that can be seen on your radar scope. Using it advertises your presence from much longer ranges that you could normally hope to detect a target. You will see a jamming target even with your radar in standby. You don't need to emit a signal intended to bounce back from him. Your radar can detect the signal he's emitting all by itself. A radar signal is nothing more than a noise ping which has a frequency and a wavelength. A jammer tries to match the frequency and wavelength but at 180 degrees phase thus cancelling out the signal, but the jammer signal itself is a perfect source for your radar to detect. You may not wish to use your jammer at long ranges because of this factor, but you'll probably wish to use it once you are sure that he knows you're there. You'll want to do this before he spikes or locks you, not when you are hard spiked. By then it's often too late. If he spikes or bugs you, he's got altitude, range, bearing, aspect and course on you and can use this information to his advantage. He may have already fired a missile. Once the radar has locked on to you and all the power of the attack radar is focused on you, it's harder for the jammer to break the lock than it is for the jammer to prevent the lock in the first place. Very often, once locked, turning the jammer on will not break the lock, but again it depends on range, aspect and other variables which you'll have to be flexible in assessing when to use your jammer. Using it too soon will give the enemy an early indication that you are out there. He'll get a bearing on you from much further away than he could normally do. If he's a team player with wingmen, this allows him to set up a bracket or a posthole or try some other BVR tactic much earlier than he would otherwise be able to do. Used at the correct time, you won't give away your position too soon, but you'll be able to deny a radar lock or bug and missile launch until much closer than you would without a jammer. Once inside burn through distance the jammer is actually a slammer or AA12 homing beacon like mentioned before. You just have to know when to use it and when to turn it off and understand what it is you are trying to achieve at any given range by using it. The guy who understands how his jammer works, how his radar works and how his missiles work will have the advantage over the guy who doesn't. The F16 is equipped with an electronic warfare system (EWS), placed in the left auxiliary console. It allows automatic countermeasures when a missile

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launch is detected by the radar warning receiver (RWR). It can automatic release chaffs or flares and turns on or off the jammer. That depends on what EWS main mode you use: OFF: The system is completely turned off and you can’t release chaffs or flares. STBY: Turn the EWS in stand-by if you want to program one of the default programs. MAN: Manually launch the selected chaff/flare program. SEMI: Automatic chaff/flare release when needed and Betty calls Jammer when a radar spike is detected to ask if you want to turn on your jammer. AUTO: Automatic chaff/flare release when needed and automatic use of the jammer. Be careful with this option because it will also turn on the jammer when a missile with HOJ capabilities is fired. In beyond visual range (BVR) combat against platforms equipped with AA12's or slammers, the missile can be launched without STT lock, therefore no missile launch warning will be generated and chaff/flares will not be automatically released regardless of the EWS mode being in SEMI or AUTO. The jammer will be switched on when a spike is detected if you are in AUTO, but you may not wish to do this since a spike may indicate a missile in the air and able to go HOJ if the jammer goes on. I usually fly with the EWS mode in SEMI to prevent the jammer coming on unless I turn it on, but I also have to release chaff/flares manually against a BVR opponent with AA12's or slammers fired in TWS or RWS mode as opposed to STT. I'll use programme 1 for BVR which is just chaff, but I'll switch to programme 2 (chaff and flares) if it looks like I'm going to the merge and the enemy has AIM 9's, AA 11's or other heater combinations as well. This is an example how I use my jammer. In most cases, I'll be jammer off until I reach about 35/40 miles. Once I'm at this range, I can be pretty sure that the bandit knows I'm there. He'll be seeing my paint on his RWR and he'll also be able to see me on his radar so I'm not too worried at this stage about revealing that I'm there. At this point I'll put my jammer on and leave it on (for now). What I'm trying to do now is deny him the ability to lock or bug me with his radar and deny him an early missile shot until I can close the range a bit to either get a bug/lock on him or get a higher Pk shot. If he allows me to bug him at 30 miles, I might pop off an early slammer anyway, just to see if I can force a response from him. The Pk might be low but he may make a mistake that I can exploit when he sees there’s a slammer inbounds. Once I get close to the range I know that his radar will be able to burn through my jamming, I'll turn jammer off and leave it off. What I'm doing now is to prevent him from being able to fire a slammer or AA12 at me that will immediately go HOJ. If he gets a HOJ shot, he can turn and run away. I might not even get a shot at him, while I'm forced to deal with his missile. I'd rather do that to him than have it done to me.

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Home on jamming Before starting with HOJ you have to know this: A-Pole: Distance from launching aircraft to target when a missile begins active guidance. F-Pole: Distance from launching aircraft to target when a missile endgames/impacts. E-Pole: Distance from a threat aircraft that evasive manoeuvres can be expected to kinematically defeat any missile the bandit is launching or could have launched. When you shoot a slammer at an opponent who’s using his jammer, the missile will go HOJ. Does a HOJ or a normal shot have a higher Pk? Not a simple answer to this question for slammers or AA12's. Missile firing range and closure has a bigger impact on Pk than guidance. A missile fired at 10 miles head on has a high Pk, while fired from the rear in a tail chase has a low Pk, regardless of its guidance method. A missile fired at close range will go pitbull off the rail and is very hard to defeat. Likewise, a missile that goes HOJ at close range will be hard to defeat as well. At longer ranges, especially outside E pole, the Pk will be low regardless of guidance method. The main advantage of getting a HOJ shot is that the missile goes autonomous earlier and needs no further help from you. This means you are free to break lock and bug out or engage another target and do not have to support the missile through its data link phase until autonomous. A HOJ shot is effectively extending your A pole. If your A pole is bigger than his, you have an advantage. Against SARH such as AA10's or AIM 7's, all you need to do is break the launch platforms STT lock at any time during the missiles flight and you will defeat the missile. How you do this (jammer, chaff or beaming) doesn't matter. The missile looses guidance and will usually go ballistic or self detonate without guidance. ARH missiles don't. If there's one in the air, it's dangerous to friend and foe alike. Without guidance, they'll head towards the last computed intercept point and switch on their radars and look for a target. First one they see, they'll try and intercept, so defeating the launch platforms radar isn't always enough. You have to get out of the missiles field of view or escape the missile kinematically. With ARH missiles, it's a sensible precaution to make sure there are no friendlies close to your intended target. If the bad guy breaks your bug/lock before the missile goes pitbull, the missile will simply arrive at a point in space and turn on its radar and look for the first available target. If your wingman is between you and the target you fired on, it might well be him.

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BVR tactics Let’s start with some terminology. DR or D-RNG (Decision Range): Minimum range at which a flight member can execute a briefed notch to beam, assess spike status and execute an abort (extend) while remaining outside the threats stern weapons employment zone (WEZ). This will be some distance greater then E-Pole to allow time for the notch and assess status. FBR (Factor Bandit Range): FBR is the minimum range between threat groups that allows the offensive fighter to achieve F-Pole on the closest group and still maintain first launch opportunity on all groups outside this range. ALL groups inside the FBR must be targeted. Groups outside the FBR can be engaged or avoided as necessary. Groups outside the FBR should not be targeted to maximise firepower on the groups inside FBR. FBR is determined by threat weapons capability, your own weapons capability, closure speeds and of course, proficiency in execution of the tactics to follow. Another term we'll need is MELD. This is the pre briefed range where radars come out of their primary search responsibility in order to find their primary target/sort responsibility. When you do this, you'll loose coverage and are vulnerable. This is why defining the FBR is important. In order to defeat a threat and survive, we're aiming to get to Pitbull (A-Pole) while still outside the E-Pole. The problem is that both these distances change radically with course variations by yourself and the bandit. They are not static. A-Pole is at its greatest distance when you are fast and nose on (dot shot) and the target is hot to you. E-Pole is at it's greatest under exactly the same circumstances. This is why we sprint, shoot, decelerate and crank. Sprint and shoot maximises your A-Pole. Decelerate and crank minimises your E-Pole. Against many threat aircraft, the F16 has a much greater A-Pole and as long as you sort, target and fire, you will win under most circumstances. Sprint, shoot, decelerate and crank is always a smart thing to do and against Mig 21's and Mig 23's will usually be sufficient to defeat the bandits at no risk. You easily remain outside D-RNG when your missile goes active. Practise this tactic until its routine. The Su 27 / AA 12 combo has a greater A-Pole potential than you do in a straight head to head shoot out. You'll never get to pitbull before you enter D-RNG. Charging straight in will never work in these circumstances. Even if

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you crank after launch to minimise E-Pole, if the Su does the same, he has a larger radar gimbal limit than you. The geometry means he can therefore reduce the E-Pole more than you can and you'll never reach him. However, D-RNG and E-Pole (Rmax2) is somewhat shorter than Rmax1 firing distance. The object of the BVR joust, BVR manoeuvring and brackets/drags is to get to pitbull while remaining outside D-RNG or at worst E-Pole. It can be done, but you have to be much smarter. The analogy here is very similar to two boxers pawing at each other at the limits of their reach (A-Pole). The boxer with the longest reach has a clear advantage. The boxer with the shortest arms sees he has an opening and goes for the biggy, a knockout punch. But to get to this distance, he exposes himself to the counter punch. He has effectively stepped inside the E-Pole! He might get away with it, but then again he may not. In BVR we're using our jab while avoiding the uppercut!

BVR Basics Things happen very fast in BVR when the missiles start to fly. Flying together with regular wingmen allows you to develop a sense of what they will be doing at any given time. However, with a good game plan and a thorough briefing, much of this understanding (but certainly not all) can be imparted to your flight by pre briefing the BVR moves you will make. Individual initiative is necessary because very often lead will not be able to keep up with events in his directive calls. This is covered by some simple "rule of thumb" actions that should be performed even without directive from lead. Inside the bandits Rmax, if you have a missile in the air, your flight has sorted the bandits (ie, you know they are all targeted and that there's no sneaky leaker floating around) and you are not spiked, you are winning and should press nose on ready to take a follow on shot. Inside the bandits Rmax, if you have a missile in the air, but you are still being spiked, you should crank to gimbal, support your missile until timeout. If the spike is dropped during this time, press and be ready to take a follow on shot. If you remain spiked during this time notch to the beam and be prepared to turn defensive drag. If you are winning and spiked, notch to the beam as singles. Don't notch as a pair or you present two targets instead of one to the spiking bandit. If you do not have a missile in the air or a contact bugged/locked and you are spiked, you are loosing. Crank to gimbal. If you drop the spike, press. If you remain spiked, notch to the beam and be prepared to go defensive drag.

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Notching to the beam when defensive should be done with chaff. Element should "lean" into the defensive fighter to minimise separation and maintain SA of the whole flight. Notching fighter should call the notch direction. If I'm in a multiship BVR engagement and lead is sorting targets, what do I do if I can't sort mine? First of all, communicate this fact. Cowboy 1-1 Contact, 11 o'clock, 40 miles, angels 15. Cowboy 1-2 Confirmed. Cowboy 1-1 two contacts, 11 o clock, now 30 miles, one lead, one trail 4 miles behind, both angels 15, sorting the lead bandit. Cowboy 1-2 not sorted, negative on the trailer, sorting the lead bandit, 11 o clock, now at 25 miles, angles 15. Cowboy 1-1, roger your sort, targeting the trailer, 28 miles, angels 15. Depending upon the targets range, there's a window when targets can still be sorted and bugged/locked around someone else’s contact prior to firing. You still have time to do something about the failed sort in this situation. The contacts will have been called out and you should know where to look. Check your HSD in the right MFD to see bugged targets that the rest of your flight has sorted. If you see nothing on radar, the only thing you can do is to turn your radar in that direction and try to get a contact. Support your lead while you attempt to do this. If you have a radar contact but cannot sort, then bug a target and inform lead. The rest of the flight can attempt to sort around your lock. You should establish a minimum range at which any fighter who remains unsorted will simply lock into the bandit group and fire. This will be prebriefed, but 20 miles is a good number. Do not wait to be told to do this. If you are weapons free, FIRE. Here's is an example of what I mean by expanding and contracting A-Poles and E-Poles. They are not static. Your cranks, notches and pumps change the geometry and the size of the envelopes. If you do this well, you'll get a killing shot while the bandit can't reach you. Let's say you go head to head with the Flanker/AA12 combo. He's going to have an A-Pole advantage. He'll get first shot and first missile autonomous. If you fire and do nothing, you'll rapidly enter the E-Pole and you will get shot. He may or may not be able to avoid your missile, but that doesn't help you very much. Now, if instead we go head to head and get off a dot shot, and then we crank to gimbals and reduce speed, we have maximised our A-Pole at the time of

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firing (which also maximises the E-Pole distance too), but once the missile is off, A-Pole for that missile shot and geometry is now fixed. The only thing that will change it is a course change from the bandit. By cranking to gimbals ourselves, we can make the E-Pole much smaller. Any missile he has fired or fires now has further to go to intercept than when we were head to head with him. Our missile now stands a good chance of intercepting him or forcing a defensive reaction before we enter the now much shrunken E-Pole and got shot by his missile.

1 vs. 1 This is a "simple" 1 vs. 1 scenario (if there is such a thing) and what you describe it is a standard sprint, shoot, brake and crank tactic. There are many variations to what happens in these encounters and to some extent you control the bandit by your own actions. The AI will usually be quite predictable and more easily controlled than a human adversary. I don't go radar off at 60 miles since I want to know where he is as soon as possible and you'll actually have a hard time detecting an F16 at this range anyway unless he's jamming. If you go LRS, you'll get a contact at 40-50 miles, RWS you'll get a contact at 40 miles. If he's in an F16, he'll see you at about the same time. I won't lock him or even bug him at this point, because he might not yet have a good idea of where I am. I might go for an offset right now (take him out to gimbals) to work out his course without bugging him. I'll hold 450-500 knots and use AB as necessary depending on how radical my jinks get. As the range closes from 40 miles or so, you're trying to deny a lock and first shot against a similar adversary, so jammer on at this point. He knows you're there. You can try notching to the beam and rapid changes in altitude while turning jammer off to try and make life difficult for him to keep track of you. You don't want him to get a good geometrical solution to the forthcoming shoot out by being predictable. Notch to the beam in alternate directions and patiently "worm" your way to burn through distance. Once you get to burn through, which will happen at around 18 miles for an F16 against an F16 and then you need to go jammer off to deny the HOJ shot. No point in giving him a homing beacon at this point. You can also try unpredictable use of the jammer. Use it or not, blink it or keep it on. You may want to invite him to shoot early by allowing him a TWS lock, knowing that you can defeat his early missile. If you stay fast, say 450 knots, it gives any incoming missiles a greater lead pursuit offset when you notch one way and then notch back the other. This alone is often enough to defeat a missile fired at longer ranges. Unfortunately, you're still outside of E-Pole at burn through distance. A missile fired at 18 miles is easily defeated kinematically (running away or dragging). What you're trying to do now is get inside his E-Pole and fire at a

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distance you can't miss. Anything inside of 10 miles is getting pretty tough for him to beat. Pretty tough for you to beat as well if he fires on you. It's now that you need that altitude and airspeed. If you were low and slow, you'll not make up the difference now, so try and arrive at shooting distance high and fast. Go full afterburner for shooting to extend your A-Pole.

2 vs. 2 It describes some problems associated with "dragging" as a defence. The scenario I'm looking at here is a 2 vs. 2 BVR against Su 27's with AA12's. Your flight has detected and engaged the Su's at 40 + miles and has initiated a bracket. We're now observing the Su's response and rapidly getting inside firing parameters for their AA12's. We're not quite in parameters for a slammer shot yet, but one side of your bracket is going for a shot, while the other arm is about to be forced defensive. Depending on the geometry of the bracket and the reactive tactics of the Su’s, a defensive drag may actually give the offensive arm of the bracket a tougher time to get within range for his own shot. To fire as early as possible, he needs the Su’s to be inside the bracket so he can close the range as quickly as possible. He does not really want the Su’s to be chasing down the dragging F16 in the opposite direction. It’s important for him to recognize that he’s the offensive fighter and to get into missile range as soon as he can. This means full burner, CATA intercept (collision antenna train angle the course you need to fly to intercept in the minimum distance - calculated for you by the fire control computer and displayed as a little circle or dot in the HUD towards which you must fly). Any delay in firing will give the Su’s that bit more time and room to “switch”. If the Su’s are given enough space to “switch” with an inside out move after their missiles are autonomous (they start inside the bracket of the F16’s, but having forced one arm defensive, they can turn "inside to out" and engage the other arm from inside the bracket which will carry them ultimately outside the bracket), the dragging F16 may not be in a position to reengage and get a missile off before the Su’s can engage his wingman, especially if the Su’s themselves attempt a split. Whilst it is possible to maintain SA while dragging, it won’t always help if you end up 25 miles away from the fight and your wingman is on his own against some angry Su’s he’s been trying to close the range on. When the dragging F16 turns to reengage, the worst-case scenario is that he is faced with 3 contacts at 25 miles, one of which he knows is his wingman. Having said that, there are many variations on the theme and every situation is slightly different. With practice and co-ordination, various tactics are effective and I don’t suggest it isn’t useful or effective, just that my experience is that reengaging after the drag requires a quick rebuild of the SA and a rapid closure of the range before you become effective in support again. It’s a real bummer when you watch your wingman go down just

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before you get in range to fire. Generally, the AI will attempt to stay together (at least in pairs), but a four ship may split into two elements. Here again, the tactics differ online and off. The more sophisticated BVR tactics can generally be expected only from human opponents. In SP3 you will meet a variety of AI tactics with variations in initial formations, beaming, dragging, brackets and splits and various use of the jammer. Sometimes they have it on and switch it off. Sometimes they keep it on or off throughout. I’ve even seen them get use of the jammer about face and start with it off and switch it on as they close to missile range. You can sometimes get them to put their jammer on by going STT on them. This might help your wingman get a freebee HOJ shot if he's closer than you. It's also quite distracting for the bandit who's being locked and your supporting wingman lost in the reaction the bandit makes, thus allowing him to close unobserved. I'll call this technique "baiting". Use of the jammer is interesting and can make or break success like said earlier. If the Su’s continue to jam inside 20 miles and you have survived to this point, you should now have a decided advantage. You can burn through, lock ‘em up, fire and disengage, which makes this the tactic of choice under these circumstances. Your missile goes autonomous immediately, leaving you free to beam, drag or do whatever you need to do, while the Su must still support his missile (always assuming that you have remembered to turn your jammer off). If you start a bracket early (say 40 miles, or even further out on jamming contacts) you'll rapidly get a big separation between you and your wingman or element. Let it go to 10 miles or so (use the HSD to keep tabs on each other), but anything over this and you can't really support with a slammer shot at any bandits closing on him. At this point, if you're making little nibbles into the Su 27's A pole advantage by notching to the beam and then closing a little more, you should try and notch to the beam in the direction of your wingman to close down the separation on a bracket that gets too wide. If the Su's initiate a bracket of their own or split their formation when you bracket, try a shackle, where you and your wingman notch to the beam by turning into each other and then continue towards one other and cross over. This sometime collapses the bandit’s bracket or at the very least confuses them. You never want to be inside the arms of an opposing bracket when the shooting starts and should always attempt to avoid this. If their bracket collapses when you shackle, simply keep going and start another bracket having swapped sides. If you are beaten off the mark by an opposing bracket, try a single side offset. Check turn away from the most distant arm of the bracket and attempt to get outside the nearest arm of the opposing bracket. Take your

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wing and element with you. You should be aiming to get all your flight into firing parameters against half of theirs before the farthest arm of their bracket can intervene. Go defensive individually or as elements as necessary, but you should outnumber their split formation and some of your flight will arrive in parameters untargeted. Keep tabs on the other arm of the bracket and either bug out or pump and re-engage as prudent. Flight leads and element leads, don't forget to assign high and low scan responsibilities to your wingmen. At these ranges, it's easy for an opposing flight, particularly that singleton with snoozed radar, to get above or below the radar scan unless you split responsibilities. Once a bandit is through the cone at the end of your radar scan, as he gets closer, it's easier to stay above or below the radar cone. Watch out for the baiting tactics described where a distant contact either locks you up or uses ECM to attract your attention, while all the while his mates are sneaking up on you. The AI won't do this but humans will. The AI also won't "blink", but humans will. Alternate aircraft switch their jammer on and off and radar lock you on and off from different directions. Altitude splits make it difficult for an enemy flight to target all of your flight unless they are good at sorting, but make sure your altitude separation is sufficient or it won't be effective. You're aiming ideally for a vertical bracket. Don't leave your element too low to the fight as they will be the most vulnerable if the Su's are coming in at mach 2 and 40,000 ft. The low flight's slammers won't reach and they're already outranged by the Su's radar and missiles. When going for a slammer shot, get high and fast to impart as much energy to your slammer as possible, but once fired, slow down and crank to slow the relative closure. Let your missile close the gap, not you. If you go defensive get low. You're more manoeuvrable lower down due to the denser air and the enemy missile has more drag and shorter range down low. Beaming low and forcing the missile to come down after you and then climbing back to altitude can beat a long range shot.

BVR vs. multiple groups Tactical Range = 35 miles. Let’s call this FBR in our examples although it might vary. Anything hostile inside 35 miles becomes a target vs. monitor. Assume we’re a 2 ship and the threats may be equivalent in capability. If the bandits are a single group, meld into the group. If the bandits are a heavy group (more than 2), we’ll meld into the group and fire if possible but abort our targeting/sort and out at D-RNG on the group. We can only target 2 of the group so it’s better to retire when outnumbered. In the following cases, we have 2 groups of 2 bandit aircraft. In one they are split in range, in the other split in azimuth. Note that when one of the groups

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is outside the FBR, we have two separate BVR engagements and can flow group to group. If both groups are inside the FBR, we can only engage one group and will make no attempt to engage the far group. Minimum range criteria must be observed to deny the second group a shot from inside EPole. It therefore follows the flow of a BVR engagement against a single group but with much more stringent minimum range criteria. You must extend at these minimum ranges or the far group will shoot you even if you defeat the near group. -Split range formations 2 Groups range greater than FBR, flow from group to group and target the near group, GCI/AWAC’s monitor the far group. 2 Groups range less than FBR +/- 25 miles apart; we’re not in immediate danger of being killed by the second group, but we will not have first shot opportunity on the second group. We can afford to be somewhat aggressive on the first group. Target the first group, aggressively crank (with respect to the second group as well if it can be managed). Monitor target status and RWR “spike” status. Press on the first group if necessary, but minimum range criteria out at E-Pole to the FAR group. 2 Groups range less than FBR +/- 10 miles apart. This one is difficult. We can still engage the first group, but must be much more conservative. Not only will we not have first shot opportunity on the second group, if we press the first group, we’re inside E-Pole on the second group. Do not press. -Split azimuth formations 2 groups +/- 25 miles apart = 25 degree spread at 60 miles = 50 degree spread at 30 miles, less than 30 miles and we’re gimballed on one group. Offset at 30-40 miles (choose one side or the other and don’t get bracketed), 45 to 55 degrees offset, target the near group, shoot and crank. Monitor target status and RWR “spike” status. Press on the first group if necessary. Unlike the first example of +/- 25 miles, you should not be in danger of entering the E-Pole on the second group. There is a possible option of flowing from group to group. 2 groups +/- 10 miles apart = E-Pole on the second group. Do not press.

How can an enemy break a radar lock? There are many reasons why a radar lock will be broken. Firstly an STT lock is the hardest to break since the radar is focused on purely on the specified target. TWS focuses less energy on a single contact because it has to keep tabs on any other contacts. It's the radar mode of choice in BVR however because unlike STT, it doesn't give a hard spike on the bandits RWR, keeps track of multiple bandits who may all be trying to kill you and works well with

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the TMS hat right press to lock next target. If you have a bugged target and it suddenly breaks the bug, it's more than likely he's notched to the beam and entered the Doppler gate. He may disappear completely for a time, but you should pick him up again if you also make a course change. Watch out for him making a radical altitude change when he enters the Doppler gate. If he gets outside your bar scan window, you'll loose track of him completely. Use your RWR to check for him painting you after he's disappeared. It's not nice being painted by a bandit you don't see on radar. Search for him by tilting your radar cone up or down. Change altitude yourself. Sometimes a bugged target at say 30 miles will use ECM and break the bug/lock that way, but then the engagement will play out something like the scenario outlined above. You just wait until burn through, bug him again and fire a slammer that will go HOJ if he keeps his jammer on. "Flashing" your jammer may do the same thing to break a bug/lock. A jamming target will not disappear from radar. You'll still be able to see a contact, but might not be able to bug or lock it. If he's dropped off your scope altogether, even though he was bugged, then he's beaming. If you didn't have him bugged, he'll also drop off if he goes above or below your scan pattern. If he is bugged, your radar will follow his altitude change in this situation. One thing that isn't causing him to disappear from your radar is him turning his radar off. This will have no bearing on whether you still see him on your radar. It will make the paint on your RWR disappear, but you'll still be able to track him on your radar. Credits go to Marlin for allowing me to use his posts as reference for writing this. Raptorman

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