Introduction

I had such a positive response on "Getting to the Target" that I decided to follow up with a wake-up call. Most virtual pilots are guilty of littering the landscape with Virtual USAF hardware and think nothing of it. I too am guilty; I get up, stretch, and mumble profanity under my breath against that SA-7 solder who got a lucky hit!

The question is not, "Was he lucky?" The question should be, "Did I plan my route correctly and why didn't I realize an SA-7 would probably be there?"

Virtual Reality, Virtual Survival

I know what some of you are thinking right now, "It's just a game! Dude, get a life." Well, how can you argue with that?

First of all, it is not a game. This is my escape to a world that I was unable to make for myself. Because you are reading this, you are probably much like me. You treat F4 as if you were really there. The decisions that you make will either let you grow as a virtual pilot or make you go postal on your monitor due to the ADA unit separating you from your fuselage.

Threat

Threat can be broken down into 3 primary roles:

• Active seeking
• Reactive seeking
• Gravity seeking

1. Active seeking

Believe it or not active seeking defenses are not the most deadly. In fact they are quite dumb. I am referring to Radar Guided Missiles. This is a technology that has been around since the beginning and the basis behind it is pretty simple: 1. Shoot missile in the air in general direction of target; 2. Use a radar dish to paint the target (illuminate) so the missile can see it and move to hit it.

To defeat said missile, just stay low. Poke out the Eyeball (radar) with your harms.

2. Reactive seeking

Now we are in the realm of the SA-7 guys. No need to give away your position until after the missile is away. Always ask yourself, "Where would I place my infantry guys?" I have survived up to 4 SA-7 hits in the past, and I was mad at myself for letting them take out my ability to engage my objective by taking out my Hud and avionics.

3. Gravity seeking

This is where the Flak and direct fire weapons come into play. In school I learned a rule stating, "What goes up must come down." This applies to full metal jackets and tracers. In F4 you are in as much danger leaving the target as you were coming in. Bullets fly upwards for quite some time, then fall back to earth. Picture a mushroom shape and you are flying through it. Falcon 4 is a great sim but I don't know if they modeled the trajectory of each round to see if it hits after the apex.

Recon

I have come up with a simple, easy to remember acronym to help you analyze the threat on the objective.

• Surface to Air Missiles
• Low altitude threats
• Unknown capabilities
• TARCAP Patrols

This may be offensive so some but you have to admit it is very easy to remember.

1. Surface to Air Missiles

SAMS are a real pain when they connect center mass. Most SAMs are useless below the radar envelope; they are limited to the launcher and the agility of the missile. Most times you can counter SAMs using terrain, chaff, and defensive manouvers. Don't get me wrong, I cannot defeat every missile that comes my way, but SAMS are nice enough to announce the fact that there coming after you. SAMs home court is between 1000' - 10,000 or 10,000 -22,500 for the most part.

2. Low altitude threats

The DPRK finds the nastiest, cheating, low life scum of the earth and issues them SA-7s. The not so bad mojos get a ZSU position. In my past article I advised pilots to avoid certain areas on your ingress and egress for this reason. The DPRK place the units anywhere that might be a possible flight path.

One mission I flew took me around a good-sized mountain. I looked right to see my clearance from terra firma and saw a smoke trail heading at me almost perpendicular to my AC. The impact was enough to close my 20' distance between my AC and the mountain turning me into a dirt dart on the side of the mountain.

3. Unknown capabilities

Not much to explain here, always plug this into your formula.

TARCAP Patrols

The enemy is not stupid; they know what targets we are interested in. When I say TARCAPS I mean any aircraft that is in the target area meaning to do you harm. If you see several flights of enemy Migs and you have no escort then maybe you should pass on that mission.

Threat Analysis Formula

I have a simple formula that I use to rate the threat level for the target.

• S = 4 pts
• L = 3 pts
• U = ?
• T = 2 pts

Every instance of enemy batteries I assign the point value. Add up the total and divide by 4. This will give you the average threat level. Use the Unknown to decide if you can handle it or need to pass.

• 1 Battery of SA-2s= 4
• 2 Battalions of ZSU-57-2= 6
• Unknown number of IR = ?
• 1 Nearby Airbase = 2

Total: 12 / 4 = 3

• Level 4 = VERY HIGH
• Level 3 = HIGH
• Level 2 = LOW

Any target that has a rating of HIGH or above is almost guaranteed to have SA-7s in the area. Now that I have a clearer picture of the Threat I can make educated guesses on my attack profiles, routes, and load-outs. This is a tool and not gospel so use it as you see fit.

Emissions: Enemy

Not everything that the enemy will throw at you emits a signal alerting you of their presence. Your RWR is nice to have but do not trust it with your life.

Search radars, Tracking radars, and ATC radars are all your enemy. Just because you are picking up a search radar signal don't think you are safe from SAMs. SAM launchers are networked via a ground control radar system. Any radar can guide a missile as far as you are concerned. This is tough due to F4 not representing to you the signatures of search radars.

Emissions: Friendly

It is nice to fly low and fast in CCRP mode, but you might as well fly with your landing lights on! It will only take one EWR or EW rig to vector fighters to your area. Get into the habit of flying with radar snuffed. This is nerve racking and it is like going to school and forgetting to wear pants. Let your escort do the TWS scans and draw the attention to themselves. You are there to get steel on target, not to become an ACE.

Counter Measures

Chaff and flares are your best friends. Now that that has been said, realize that they are also worthless and sometimes worse than worthless.

Chaff is used to create a bigger more inviting target for the guidance radar to home in on. Most of the time it only works to limited effect.

Flares on the outer hand are more effective in their role. IR guided missiles are more susceptible to this type of decoy.

I am not going into different types of evasion methods and practices, but I will share my SOP for reference. I drop three in succession at a 2-second interval: one during my pop-up, another as I turn to my egress heading after release, and then again just before I duck down behind the nearest terrain feature.

Reaction

There is a simple yet very true statement I used a lot in the Army: "Stay Alert! Stay Alive!"

You can take the information I have given and use what you wish to better plan your attacks. Remember it takes a better pilot to pass on a target and live, then to die trying.