Viper Pilot_ A Memoi..

weapons. In this case, barring a mistake, it all comes down to experience and who
can outperform the other soonest. Dissimilar BFM is when any of the above are
fought against another type of aircraft. This, especially if it’s from a neutral setup,
is the most realistic dogfighting training there is. In the real world, you rarely know
exactly who all the bad guys are, and you’re much more likely to meet one head-on
rather than sneak up behind him.
BFM is only the beginning.
Air Combat Maneuvering (ACM) is next, and it’s BFM on steroids. Here you
fight as a pair against one enemy fighter. Again, there’s Offensive, Defensive,
Neutral, and Dissimilar. Communicating with your wingman is vital, and together
you must locate the threat, identify it, react, and then kill it. Remember, you’re
doing all this while zipping around at rifle-bullet speeds.
Air Combat Tactics (ACT) is fighting as a pair against an unknown number of
adversaries—because in combat you never really know how many bad guys are out
there. Again, this approximates real-world confusion and tests a pilot’s ability to be
able to think, fight, and win against any number or type of threat.
There are two main categories of air-to-air tactics. Within Visual Range (WVR)
is where you’re fighting an opponent you can see with your eyes. This usually
means short-range weapons, like heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles and the 20-mm
cannon. Beyond Visual Range (BVR) is meant to take advantage of the American
technical superiority that permits long-range missile employment. If you can kill a
guy before he gets close enough to shoot at you, it’s always better. Think about a
man coming at you with a knife, but you’ve got a loaded gun in your hand. Would
you pull your own knife or just shoot him in the head
The best part of ACT was the dissimilar combat. We usually fought against
American F-15s or F/A-18s, both of which are very tough fights. There were even
some Navy F-14 Tomcats (you know, Maverick and Goose) still creaking around,
but they were more for trophy-hunting rather than fighting. Sparing no expense, the
Air Force also brought over foreign aircraft and their pilots when available. French
Mirages, Israeli KIFRs, and German Tornados were all on the menu.
These international guys always had a good time flying across the world to Sin
City to dogfight in the sun. One night in downtown Vegas, I watched a British
fighter squadron get thrown out of a casino and arrested en masse. The Brits were
confused, because it’s simply Royal Air Force tradition to get plastered, sing songs,
and perform the Prang Concerto—that is, burn a piano. Unfortunately, this
particular piano was in the lobby of a very large and prominent downtown casino.
If we’d done that, we’d be in jail for a while, but these guys got a headline in the