As a falcon fan I have often
wondered about such things as:
"How fast should I be flying over enemy territory?"
"At what point do I initiate a pop-up, how long do I hold it, and then
what should I do?"
"At what point do I want to have my pipper on the target, and how far
away should I hit something with a Maverick?"
Lately I have been engrossed in the book "Vipers in The Storm" by Capt.
Keith Rosenkranz, which details his experiences as an F-16 pilot during
the Gulf War. One of the great things about this book is the detail with
which Captain Rosenkranz describes his activities as a pilot during missions.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the
operations and life of an F-16 pilot. So, in attempt to answer the aforementioned
questions, I have summarized a couple of the attack profiles described
in the book. If people find this sort of thing interesting, I may put
up a couple more summaries. I have tried to keep these pretty clinical
and have just summarized the important details:
Profile
1
Low-High-Low CCIP attack
vs. SA-8 site with Mk-84s
Ingress: 20,000ft, 300kts; rendezvous with tanker
Fence: Drop to 300 ft, accelerate to 480kts.
IP: Master Arm on; accelerate to 540kts
4.5DME (4.5Miles to target): 30-degree climb to 4,900 ft while dumping
chaff. At the pull-down altitude, roll 120 degrees and initiate a 5-G
bank towards target area. Once aligned with target area, roll wings level
and begin a 20-degree dive towards target. *
Attack: Execute CCIP drop on target followed by a 5-G pull up. Once wings
are level snap to egress heading.
Egress: Drop back down to 300ft. Accelerate to 550kts and head for the
fence.
*Note: For this attack, the flight consisted of a two-ship element. The
flight lead performed a low altitude attack directly along the run-in
heading. For deconfliction purposes, once the element reached the IP the
#2 aircraft (the one whose attack is described here) took a heading
that was about 20 degrees to the right of the run-in path on the HSD.
Thus when he performed his pop up maneuver, he actually had to turn, as
well as dive toward the target.
Profile
2
High Altitude CCIP attack
vs. Iraqi Nuclear Research Facility
Fence/Ingress: Fluid Four Formation; 27,000ft;
20 miles from IP: SA-2 Launch. Pilot jinks while dispensing chaff, and
the SAMs pass wide of the aircraft. At this point the flight encounters
thick barrage flak.
13DME: Pull up GM radar; Begin descent into target area amidst heavy flak.
According to the pilot the RWR is going nuts, showing SA-2’s, SA-3’s,
SA-6’s, and SA-8’s. The sky is filled with missile contrails.
Passing through 17,000 ft, aircraft is at 35degrees nose low at 450kts.
Switch from CCRP to CCIP. Bombs release at 14,700ft, followed by a 5-G
recovery as described in the last profile. At this point the aircraft
was in the midst of some serious flak, so the pilot plugs the afterburner
and begins a 30-degree climb out of the target area. At 20,500 ft airspeed
has decreased to 200kts. In order to maintain energy the pilot jettisons
his external tanks. Without the weight, the aircraft accelerates to 300kts
as he climbs out to 26,000ft.
Note: During this attack 2 F-16s were lost. On the Deltahawk’s
website you can actually hear the radio conversation of one of the
F-16’s that was lost (callsign: Stroke1). You can hear the recording
in RealAudio here.
Stroke 1 was damaged and the pilot was forced to eject over Iraqi territory
when his aircraft ran out of fuel. SAR teams went in but were unable to
locate the pilot. From the book it is unclear if Stroke 1 ever made it
out. The second aircraft, callsign Stroke 4, came apart when a SAM impacted
his jet. No chute was spotted.
Profile
3
On Call CAS vs. Iraqi tanks
using AGM-65D Maverick
Ingress: 24,000ft after topping off from the tanker.
Killbox Entry (between steerpoints 15 and 16): Descend below 13,000ft;
Set ALOW for 6,000ft (in order to avoid ZSU fire the pilots operated
with a 5,000ft floor). Begin GMT search for moving contacts. Airspeed
360kts.
STP15: First lock is on a moving vehicle at 20 miles. Uncage Maverick,
and pickle at 5miles.
