Kilgore Fixed Wing section tactics (Fighter weapons school, top gun, Wingman)

[Cassius]

Here is a guide that lays out teamwork between 2 jets or a section. A flight consists of 3 or more aircraft. A flight is usually broken down in sections of 2 to 3 planes consisting of a leader and its wingman. This guide focuses on tactics for a 2 fighter (or bomber) jets strong section.

Wingman tactics are seldolmly used in PR. Mostly because because everybody reads other stuff online, so there is no common ground, no common knowledge ad hoc teamwork can be based on. This guide aims to change that. Teaming up vastly improves the chances of survival against enemy Fighter jets and successful engaging them.



Preparation

First off decide who will be the leader and who will be the wingman. The leader takes care on where to go and what tactics to apply. The wingman keeps track of where the leader is and flies in formation to him. On some maps you have 4 jets at your disposal. If you form up 2 teams you might want to assign a callsign, something simple like red, that way if the leader wants his wingman to exectute a maneuver there is no confusion if its prefaced by red/blue (Red Break turn right).

Communication

The Wingman just relays any sightings to the Leader, the Leader relays any sightings and shouts out manoeuvres. Therefore especially the wingman should make any reports snappy so the leader can make a quick decision. Further the wingman should report the type of aircraft. In the game there are only fighters and bombers. Report a multi-purpose joint strike fighter as a fighter, seen as it can be just as manoeuvrable and fast as a fighter jet. The wingman should also report his position relative to the leader but more about it under formation.

Example:

Wingman Red: "Red 6 (o clock implied) fighter"
Leder red: "Break right"

Leader red "6 (o clock) Bomber scissor left"

Formations

Lets look at 2 simple formations.

1. high low formation.

One jet flies low, (out of the range of Ground to air weapon systems though) and the ohter jet high (2000 to 2500m). The jet which flies low flies with a bit of a lead (if he has to climb he loses speed, its accounted for by making him fly with a lead) while the jet that flies high shadows him. The leader should be the one flying low. The only advantage of this formation is that a bandit incoming on either jet is unaware of the second jet.

If either jet gets a bandit on his 6 o clock


the other jet closes in on him and starts to engage preferably with a missile (a miss with a gun could hit your friendly, so could a miss with the missile though).

2. Wedge formation.

The wingman flies slightly back and slightly below to the left or right of the lead aircraft. The wingman should see the leader aircraft on his 2 o clock or 10 o clock above him. Whatever he is comfortable with, as long as he keeps up and holds the formation. Tell the squadleader wether you are on his left or right and stay there if possible, avoid changing sides constantly or at all.




This formation has the obvious drawback that any attacking aircraft instantly sees he is dealing with 2 fighter jets, however it has a string of advantages that make it worthwhile. For one it is the starting point of the manoeuvres outlined later, for the other in this formation one jet can check on the blind spot of the other avoiding surprises.

Behaviour in combat.

Before we go on to evasive maneuvers on how to get the enemy jet attacking your formation in your 12 o clock we will look at how to behave when you do have him on your 12 o clock. The jet that gets the drop on the bandit chases him and engages him. The second jet rather than search for other bandits trails the friendly jet at a distance. If the jet has to abort the pursuit (out of ECM, out of ammo etc.) the other jet can take over or can take over if the bandit loses your wingman/leader. Further if the bandit radios in for help you will be between the approaching bandit and your friendly and he will likely engage you, so that the friendly can maintain the pursuit of the bandit.


Section tactics (Wingman air to air tactics)

Here are some manoeuvres outlined for a jet formation (section) consisting of 2 planes. The jets start out in the wedge formation. The goal of the outlined manoeuvres is to get the bandit on your 12 o clock to effectively engage him.

The Break Turn



One of the simplest maneuvers is the Break turn. Most of us know it as the turn we make when a bandit pulls on to our 6. This also creates confusion for the bandit as now he has two aircraft to deal with and must make a descission as to which one to pursue. As the bandit makes his decision, the other section member is given the opportunity to pull outside for the missile shot. If the bandit is pursuing to you call it out to your wingman/leader, he has the opportunity to reduce speed undisturbed if he isnt already on the badits 6 o clock.

How to initiate: Depending on the approach of the bandit the break turn should be executed to the right or the left (or either). If the Bandit approaches from your 7 or 8 o clock the leader should order a "break right", if the bandit approaches form the 4 or 5 o clock to the left, if he is on the 6, then either. If you call the wrong turn (ex. "break left" with a bandit approaching from the 7 or 8 o clock), wait for the bandit to approach you again and call the right.

Note calling the "wrong turn" pretty much puts the bandit on the sections 3 (or 9) o clock at which point the bandit is likely to overshoot the section. You might want to call the "wrong turn" on purpose if you want to disengage from any jets you encounter for whatever reason.


When to execute: A fighter jet pulls up to your formation from behind. The bandit maintains high speeds.


Advantage: The maneuver is realitvely easy to execute. Seen as you turn as little as possible you can maintain high speeds in pursuit of a fast jet.

Disadvantage:

A maneuvrable bandit like some bombers might be able to quickly outturn the fighter jet that went in pursuit.

Circle



The circle allows you to take full advantage of a highly maneuvrable plane, while setting up the plane for your wingman. One plane circles left, while the other circles right. The Bandit must make a decision on which plane to pursue. If the bandit is not in pursuit of you or if your wingman/leader calls out the bandit is in pursuit of him, slightly reduce speed, so that you complete the circle a bit later than your leader/wingman who has the bandit in pursuit of him. After the plane that is being chased by the bandit completes the circle it should fly straight or initiate a turn in the opposit direction. The banking maneuver to reallign should make the bandit temporarily very vulnerable to the jet that is coming in from behind.

How to initiate: If you have a plane in your rear start circling right while you tell your wingman "Circle left" or the other way around.

When to use: The maneuver should be used when your formation consist of slowish but manoeuvrable bombers against bandit fighters. If you use it over an area with friendly ground to air missiles you have the added benefit that the bandit is exposed to Friendly AA fire for a prolonged time.

Advantage: Unlike with the break turn there is no danger of getting the turn wrong as long as the bandit approaches your rear. When the planes merge the bandit will have bled a lot of speed is at maximum bank and will take time to readjust to pursue your leader/wingman who straightened out the plane or banked in the opposite direction.

Disadvantage: The plane which has the bandit in pursuit will be a target for quite a while and eventually use up a lot of flares to make it through the maneuver. Also timing is crucial, if either pilot is asleep at the controls and initiates the circle too late the whole maneuver is bust.

Thach Weave



Two fighter aircraft fly in formation side by side. When the enemy aircraft chooses one of the two fighters as his target (the "bait" fighter) the two wingmen turn in toward one another and cross each others path.After the fighters have separated in opposite directions in this manner they then commence a turn back toward one another which brings the enemy fighter into the gunsights of the "hook" fighter. The turns are repeated, similar to a Scissor manoeuvre giving the "hook" fighter further opportunities. However it cannot be continued for long due to the enemy fighter's superior turn ability.If the manoeuvre is executed correctly the enemy fighter has little chance of escape if he has followed the "bait" fighter through its turn.

How to initiate: The leader yells out "(red/blue) weave at which point the jet to the right moves right and the jet to the left left, when the jets have some distance the jets start turning into each other as described and visualized above. The weave is also effective against an bandit executing the flat scissor where the section has the bandit on its 12 of clock (basically a single airplane doing the weave look it up) but of course without a bait aircraft the bandit has no reason to maintain that motion and can change it abruptly.

When to use it. Use it against highly manoeuvrable Bandits that keep getting away, like some of the hard turning bombers or that damnable F-15/E.

Advantages: It defeats an opponents manoeuvrability.

Disadvantages: The bait aircraft has to bank and turn against a very manoeuvrable bandit and will be at high risk. Use ECMs a lot.

The bracket:

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Most manoeuvres dealt with countering enemies attacking from a rear. Here is one on how to deal with a bandit approaching the formation from the front. The bracket involves splitting up the lead/wingman formation (2) and giving the bandit two choices for a target. You must make sure you know where you wingman is before the bracket begins. When the bandit makes his choice, the other member must engage the bandit (3) and take him out. The bandit is obviously in pursuit of the friendly, so close in to the 6 o clock of your friendly. If the bandit does not pick any aircraft or loses sight of it resume the wedge formation.

How to initiate: Seen as the maneuver has to be executed very fast as soon as an approaching bandit is identified there should be an understanding between leader and wingman, that the maneuver is executed each time the section runs into an approaching bandit from the front. The jet that is on the left turns left and the jet that is on the right turns right.

Advantage: Effective way to deal with approaching enemy bandit.

Disadvantage: Lots of unkowns here, does the bandit take the bait, does he not, is he searching but lost both jets? Best to only temporarily break the formation.

Two jets bombing.

The jet formation can support each other with bombing or alternatively one of the jets supports a third jet, possibly a bomber. The goal is to distract ground AA. Fly just ahead of the attacking bomber and make a fast pass at the target popping flares. Be fast enough to be a hard target the AA should be barely able to get a lock on you. Feel free to bomb the target yourself if you get a tone, but either the bomb wont arm because due to your speed to avoid a shootdown it impacts before you arm or you expended the few air to ground ordnance you had already. As the friendly bomber comes in for his own pass the AA likely faces away from it.

Thats all

That's it, there you have 4 basic 2 on 1 manoeuvres along with procedures. So what now? Memorize these 4 manoeuvres along with the procedures and practice them by yourself if you must or with a buddy if you can. It looks much but it isn't. Its barely 5 pages (with all the tricks to stretch it out). I slammed it together in an afternoon. Taking it all in should be doable.



When I get the impression that the application of this guide is sufficiently widespread I will add a couple more useful manoeuvres.

[[R-DEV]​UTurista]

Real life tactic don't work in PR...

And having 2 aircrafts together means one will get the lock-on warning, he'll flare and then the missile will either hit him or miss in the last second and hit the other plane.

I know there's bait tactics in PR but this isn't explaining that.

[Cassius]

You are not supposed to fly in formation while being shot at. two set of eyes looking at the back will hopefully prevent the section from being jumped.it's all explained in the guide.

[H.Maverick]

Reading this reminded me of the time History Channel was still showing history.

ah, Dogfights, where have you gone off to?

[Spook]

Thats all nice and might work in DCS but not in PR sorry. The key of success is always to separate in PR. You know how much I would love to find 2 jets in a formation? 2 free kills yummy.

In Pr you spread, fly around, if you have contact behind you, you call in your buddy, he comes and if you are luckyhe kills the enemy jet before he finishes you. Thats how it works. If you fly formation the jet will just sneak up to you from behind, kill the first jet with a sudden AA salvo and go after the second jet turning away. You'll end up with on dead jet for sure and with one jet having an enemy on his tail and very likely going to get killed aswell if there is not a third wingman in the air somewhere.

Also the bombing thing is the worst you can do. If you bomb, AA rarely watches in the sky, people are noobs and get tired after 2mins. They start looking for INF on the ground or do whatever. And just when you are climbing again they usually notice and try to kill but you will be out of reach already. Flying by with a jet first to alarm the AA and risk getting shot down over nothing so the second jet will be definitely expected and shot at when he is approaching is not very smart. What I usually do though is escort bomb jets and protect them from enemy fighters. because as soon as they bomb they get reported and thats the most dangerous couple of seconds a jet can has before it manages to leave that area. An enemy jet will be on that pos between 1-10 seconds if they have good CAS, so you want to stay behind the bombing jet with a nice distance and when its diving only go so low that you still are out of AA reach and cannot be spotted from the ground. You keep flying behind the bomber while its climbing and leave him as soon as he is out of the "danger zone" (yes I said it). Incase an enemy jet appears its usually not a problem to catch him before he does damage cause he will either appear infront of the bombing jet or in front of you. If you are unlucky he'll show up behind you when he is late for the party but the bomber can still turn around and safe your ass if he doesnt one-shot you with his first salvo.

Jet gameplay in PR is still extremely fast and arcadish, there is sadly no time and place for milsim maneuvers, even though I would love that.

[Cassius]

Well I dont think anything like this has been applied yet. Yes if you stay in formation while you get shot at its not that good, but with two jets checking their rear it will hopefully not happen.

So far this is Schr?dinger guide. Until I get around to testing some of it or somebody else everything written about this guide is right and wrong at the same time.

[paul161616]

still an awesome guide, even if it may not fit for PR. the manouvres were well explained so thankyou!

[viirusiiseli]

Originally Posted by Cassius

Well I dont think anything like this has been applied yet.

It has been. On falklands mod, PR 0.981. Formation flying = death

[Code11b]

Originally Posted by Cassius

Well I dont think anything like this has been applied yet. Yes if you stay in formation while you get shot at its not that good, but with two jets checking their rear it will hopefully not happen.

So far this is Schr?dinger guide. Until I get around to testing some of it or somebody else everything written about this guide is right and wrong at the same time.

I'm not sure if the tactics you are describing are "Impossible" to successfully implement in P.R., i'm not quite with the disbelievers but i do think it'd require two people who really knew they're stuff...two people with precise and quick communication and unwaivoring patience as well as two people who practiced this sort of thing frequently....they'd have to be absolutely top notch pilots to pull this sort of thing off i'd say. It's very uncommon in PR and it will probably remain so. I'd like to say everyone in PR is well diciplined and patient but that's just not true...most people get bored as another person previously mentioned. People can be expected to follow basic orders at a basic level and the rest is rare in PR.

[Mongolian_dude]

These tactics will certainly have more baring on PR:F, since it has a large number of aircraft either side and the extensive view distances allows pilots to anticipate and premeditate their manoeuvres.