Page 15 - AAPT August 19

Feature
contact, vice multiples in a formation.
I set my geometry to take the ‘Bogey’
(unidentified target) down my right side.
My wingman has deployed high and left,
so when I turn right across the target,
he’ll turn right directly into the path of
my wingman.
About 15nm I see a lot of dirty
black smoke and call the contact an
F-4 Phantom. They had notoriously
smokey engines that gave away their
position easily. Regardless, we press
home the attack for practice. However,
at about 5nm I ID the target as a
Tornado. My terminology was to call it
a ‘Tomato, hostile cleared kill’ as they
were easy picking like the fruit. On top
of the geometry we have accelerated
to about 500kts because at about 4nm
I call ‘power’. We pull back on the
throttles to help cool the engines to
the merge and practice IRCM (Infrared
Countermeasures). This helps negate
the chance of the enemy having a
successful launch of a frontal aspect
heat seeking missile.
Now my fangs come out! I
lead turn the Tornado, bank 90
degrees right, snatch about
7g and as I feel the rear end
of my jet bite, I slam in full
Afterburner. I pass directly
overhead the Tornado with
90 degrees of angles already
gained at the merge, looking
Cold War Tornado Kill by Darren ‘Buster’ Crabb I see two sets of eyes looking
down into the Tornado cockpit

up at me.

They make the poor decision to
Radar search our assigned areas We set our CAP (Combat Air Patrol) turn with me vice going into afterburner
of responsibility as we cruise north at 360kts to conserve fuel, on a 15nm and try to out run me before I can
towards the Bingen gap. This is a saddle East/ West orientation. Flowing East bring weapons to bear. My jet is rate
feature on the Rhine River to the west I get a low level radar contact about turning at 14 degrees per second, so
of Frankfurt. 25nm on the nose. I call for the commit, the Tornado is less than 10 seconds
The German scenery is a fantastic accelerate to 420kts, and based on from my weapons solution and having
lush patchwork of tiny tended fields, and the ROE (Rules of Engagement) we to defend a missile.
it is sometimes surreal as you realise were using on the day, I call for a VID, Per my plan, the Tornado commences
that this area has been fought over for or visual identification. I call ‘eyeball’ a right hand turn in front of my wingman.
centuries, as testament to the myriad and my wingman calls ‘shooter’. We As their speed decreases, I see his
of medieval castles that line the hills stringently practiced and adhered to wings extend fully open to maintain
along the Rhine. We cruise along at the ROE as no one wanted to be ‘that aerodynamic lift. I see my wingman
500’ AGL (above ground level), 700km/ person’ that started WW3. descend from on high and he calls a
hr, waving at the tourists soaking in the We sort the contact on our radars ‘guns kill on the Tornado’, closing to
Castle’s history. and determine there is only one within 1000 feet for the 20mm canon.

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