BVR Basic Training

Basic 2-ship BVR tactics

Components: Formation, MAR, communication, mutual support, differences from singleton BVR
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of aircraft's performance, basic radar operation, basic A/A missile employment
Not covered: Aircraft performance, weapon employment
Progression: Advanced 2-ship BVR tactics, advanced weapon employment, advanced combat efficiency

See also

Air-To-Air Glossary

Comms

Mission Procedures

Tactical imperatives

• Keep weapons and a radar pointed in threat direction at all times.
• Stay out of Minimum Abort Range, as long as possible or until you decide to transition to a WVR engagement.

Pre-flight

It's advised that the flight lead brief the flight on CAP contracts and preferred tactics of engagement.

Arriving on station

20-30 NM from station, wingman performs a 360 or a dog-leg to separate roughly 20 NM in a trail. Enter CAP racetrack hold with hot leg in threat direction.

Note: Don't slow down to create the 20 NM separation. It takes a long time and puts you in a tactically vulnerable stance.

Keeping a good racetrack

• Coordinate airspeed and bank angle. For example M 0.85 and 30° bank angle.
• Communicate reference headings for the hot leg. Example: "Reference heading 020"
• Turn at 12 NM distance to maintain ~20 NM trail separation.

Tip: Use markpoints for the end points of the racetrack, if possible. This helps with situational awareness.

Example establishing racetrack with reference heading and markpoints

Engaging using shooter/cover trail tactic

Example shooter/cover engagement with comms

When you decide or get vectored to engage a detected group of hostiles, either lead or wingman could become the "shooter". This is the aircraft that flies first into the engagement and fires the first missiles. The trailing aircraft has the "cover" role and helps maintain SA by observing radar contacts and/or putting the TGP/eyeballs on hostiles to detect launches and maneuvers. Cover is flown 20nm behind the shooter.

Try to "sort" targets in a simple but effective fashion. If possible, use cardinal directions and altitudes to sort aircraft. "1, engaging northern bandit" or "2, engaging bandit at 25 thousand".

Once the shooter breaks off and goes cold, the roles are reversed and the cover aircraft becomes the shooter. However, the cold cover aircraft must be careful to not turn hot too soon as this can put the flight in a situation where both aircraft must turn cold at the same time. This violates the "weapons and radar in threat direction at all times" imperative, and could put the flight in a permanently defensive position.

Simple timeline

1. Commit (decision or from AWACS)
2. Shooter gets radar contact
3. Shooter sorts targets (say which ones you'll be shooting)
4. Launch
5. Crank
6. Decide (go cold or push to WVR)
   • If shooter cold, trailer assumes shooter role and sorts targets etc
   • If shooter pushes, trailer continues cover role

Example shooter/cover engagement with comms

Extended timeline

BVR combat is a very dynamic environment, and the extended timeline might evolve into one or multiple of numerous branches which will not be covered in the 2-ship basic BVR tactics guide. It's nevertheless imperative to maintain the shooter/cover concept for mutual support until combat is resolved.

Intra-flight communication

It's imperative to enter combat with a plan and be able to adapt the plan to the dynamics of air combat. To execute efficiently execute the tactic, efficient communication is key to maintain situational awareness while not overloading the intra-flight frequency with unnecessary information.

Advisable calls

• Fox calls with target allocation
• Cover's position and aspect relative shooter
• Pump/Cold
• Target/s maneuvering
• Winchester
• Bingo
• Disengagement

Calls relative simple timeline

Example of a 2-ship flight engaging two bandits in close formation. Calls on tactical frequency in red, all other calls on intra-flight frequency. Following above simple timeline:

1. Sensor check. Viper21: "One, SA contact both targets angels 28, hot on us."
2. Sensor check. Viper22: "Two, sensor contact."
3. RED Flight lead's decision to engage. Viper11: "Viper2, committing."
4. Flight lead's short engagement briefing. Viper11: "One shooter, two cover in trail, one intends to press both targets."
5. Wingman acknowledge. Viper22: "Wilco, two cover."
6. Sensor check. Viper21: "One, radar contact both targets."
7. RED Shot call. "Viper21, fox 3 times two, both targets."
8. Viper21: "Cranking."
9. Viper21: "Pitbull, pumping."
10. Viper22: "Two. Targets defending, splitting up north and south. Pushing for the northern target."
11. RED Viper22: "Viper22, fox 3 north target, cranking."
12. Viper21: "Two, turning hot, cover."

It's imperative to sustain communication beyond the simple timeline described, applying above principles.

Contingency plans

It is natural to progressively lose situational awareness during a prolonged engagement. Always try to regain SA but don't freeze. If SA becomes permanently poor, it is very beneficial to have a contingency plan in the back of your mind. Usually this consists of a heading to fly when SA is lost. If you know that friendlies are southwest of your engagement, flying southwest when you lose SA is very likely to save you.