Procedures/78th/A2A/BVR
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SCOPE and MOTIVATION
This Training Unit assumes understanding of Aircraft Fundamentals, BFM and the Line Abreast Formation
Beyond Visual Range engagements are the most common A2A conflicts that modern era pilots have to master.
This unit aims to teach you how to stay alive minimize blue on blue situations and teach you how to use your weapons most effectively.
BVR I - Basics
This part orients itself on this video by The Ops Center by Mike Solyom.
When a fighter is committed to an intercept, the goal is to end up in an offensive position with eyes on the target. But with the proliferation of modern air-to-air missiles, it is very likely that a target may decide to fire on an interceptor before that happens. That fight can happen at Beyond Visual Range, where the only view of the other aircraft is a blip on a radar screen — so how do you survive and win a Beyond Visual Range fight?
The overall strategy to winning any BVR fight is to simply get a weapon solution on your opponent without letting them get a weapon solution on you. (This is an oversimplification of a very complex process.)
Identify Friend or Foe (IFF)
Before a fighter can fire on another aircraft, that aircraft needs to be confirmed as a valid target. That process of identification is called IFF (Identify Friend or Foe).
Weapon Engagement Zone (WEZ)
There are many ways of preventing an enemy from getting a weapon solution, involving technical countermeasures like jamming, decoys, and chaff, as well as radar-defeating maneuvers like the Notch, and low radar cross-section airframes. All of these are great but share a common flaw: they are not guaranteed to work.
The only solution that always works is staying outside the kinetic range of the enemy's missiles.
The zone where an enemy's missile can kinematically reach you is called the Weapon Engagement Zone (WEZ).
For most Red Coalition fighters, a stern WEZ of 14 NM at 30,000 ft and 4 NM at 0 MSL is a good rule of thumb. WEZ is a highly dynamic figure and requires a great amount of experience to estimate correctly, so be conservative with your approximations.
Remember the four A's: Altitude, Airspeed, Aspect, Angle-off at Launch. High values increase the WEZ; low values decrease it. Altitude is by far the most important factor.
The "OUT" Maneuver
This leads to a simple strategy for survival: turn away from the attacker as quickly as possible. This is such an effective strategy that it even has its own name and brevity code.
To execute an OUT, make a tactical turn where you maintain airspeed throughout the turn and put the threat on your 6 o'clock. Unlike standard tactical turns, this maneuver is executed at full afterburner, since survival is the primary concern.
The radio call is:
SHADOW11 OUT [DIRECTION]
Minimum Abort Range (MAR)
There is a specific distance at which you want to initiate your turn, called the Minimum Abort Range (MAR). We want to begin the turn such that throughout and after the maneuver we remain outside the enemy's WEZ. To determine this, we need to account for the distance consumed while executing an OUT. Factoring in closure rate and turn rate, this comes out to approximately 4 NM in most scenarios at 30,000 ft, and 2–3 NM at lower altitudes.
Adding this to a WEZ of 14 NM gives a MAR of 17–18 NM; adding one mile of margin gives a MAR of 19 NM at 30,000 ft. This is the distance at which you want to execute your OUT.
BVR II A - SKATE
In many defensive scenarios where the safety of the intercepting fighter is more important than the destruction of enemy assets, we have launch-and-leave tactics. Just like the name implies, ordnance is launched and then the fighter executes an OUT. Launch-and-leave preserves range between interceptors and the target, thereby keeping them outside of an adversary's WEZ — but it also points the fighter's weapons and sensors away from the target. Flying away makes confirmation of weapons effects more difficult and usually results in a lower probability of kill. However, this may be enough to accomplish the mission objective: if firing a missile at a hostile aircraft gets it to leave defended airspace, that's a win — even if it doesn't result in a kill.
Launch-and-leave tactics have their own brevity code, known as SKATE:
SHADOW11 [SHORT / / LONG] SKATE
To understand the difference between SHORT SKATE, SKATE, and LONG SKATE, we need to introduce two more concepts.
The "IN" Maneuver
Similar to the OUT, the IN is a full afterburner turn that maintains airspeed and altitude, but puts the adversary on your 12 o'clock.
SHADOW11 IN
The IN has approximately the same distance cost as the OUT.
Minimum Out Range / Desired Out Range (MOR / DOR)
The Minimum Out Range (MOR) is the distance to the adversary at which we can execute an OUT, then an IN, launch a second missile, and execute another OUT — all while staying outside the adversary's WEZ.
So in addition to the MAR, we account for one IN and one additional OUT maneuver:
MOR = MAR + cost of IN + cost of OUT = 19 NM + 4 NM + 4 NM = 27 NM
SHORT SKATE / SKATE / LONG SKATE
SKATE is the overarching brevity for a launch-and-leave tactic. It is not a maneuver like the IN and OUT, but a tactic.
- A SHORT SKATE is defined by executing a single OUT at MAR (19 NM).
- A SKATE is executed at MOR (27 NM), with the intention of turning back in for a follow-up engagement.
- A LONG SKATE allows for two additional launch opportunities and is executed at:
MOR + cost of IN + cost of OUT = 27 NM + 4 NM + 4 NM = 35 NM
BVR II B - BANZAI
In some scenarios where Defending a position is Essential to Mission Success a Higher Risk tactic might be acceptable. In a scenario where high risk is acceptable interceptors would lauch their ordinance and cotinoue on toward the target. This allows them to better assess the results of their shots and keep their weapons pointed toward the enemy in caase further shots are needed. Any Plan that follows this logic will fall inot the category of laucnch and decide.
The Brevity for this Doctrine is BANZAI
SHADOW11 BANZAI
BVR III - Defensive COUNTER AIR (DCA)
Now that we have an Overview of Basic Tactics