SU-27 Kill

[Eddie]

Briefly mentioned in the screenshot thread. Here's a video capture of the tacview ACMI showing the kill.

Stuka and Gopher were a 2 ship, and I was flying solo (which is never good) so I hooked up with them over the AO and coordinated attacks and general flight ops to ensure some mutual support.

After we'd been in the AO for around 15 mins AWACS informed us of a flight closing on our position, and we had SU-27 nails on the RWR. We all immediately began to retrograde east away from hostile airspace and towards friendly CAP/SAM cover. Unfortunately for us there was no CAP on station as they had just headed home and the replacement was not on station, and even worse the Georgian SAM operators were rubbish (or the SU-27 drivers were good at defeating their missiles) so the fighters were able to keep closing on us. Although as they were having to dodge SAMs they were thankfully unable to take an MRM shot.

The three of us had just rejoined for mutual support, and reached the valleys of the Kashuri gap when I spotted a single SU-27 off my 8 o'clock at around 5 miles, way too close. At that range we were essentially merged so running was no longer an option, so I dumped the remaining stores and engaged the bandit scoring the kill with an AIM-9M. The entire offensive engagement lasted less than 30 seconds, from me getting tally, to him being in a parachute.

Sadly the tacview can't capture the speed of things, or the comms, but at least it gives an idea of how it flowed.

[Baxter]

Wow made that look easy!

[Eddie]

It is.


See 'em, maneuver into a position for a shot (easy with an all aspect AAM), fire, watch for weapon impact, if it hits job done, if not fire again. Simples.

[Joyride]

Looks like you got visual on him from watching the Georgian missile track? Always seems like the hardest part...getting tally.

[Yassy]

Indeed. Once the smoke is gone and you still haven't got a tally, you're pretty much screwed.

[Eddie]

Looks like you got visual on him from watching the Georgian missile track? Always seems like the hardest part...getting tally.

Actually no. I just check my left rear quarter and spotted a small black aeroplane shaped dot. Thanks to some good SA I knew what it was right away, and immediately switched to kill or be killed mode.

I think that is one key thing many people forget when it comes to A/A, in all aircraft types, aggression is a must. If you hesitate you're dead. But at the same time, you have to know when to be aggressive and go for the kill, and when to run away. In the Hog it's always runaway, until they force your hand. Once merged you have no choice but to engage.

[Joyride]

Nice. I can have the AWACS tell me I am merged with the SU-25s and couldn't find them if they were sitting in the cockpit with me ;-)

[Eddie]

Fighters are often easier to spot, as they tend to come from high, and move faster (so catch the eye better). Attack jets and helps are always hard to see because they are not flying relative to you so to speak. They are off doing there own thing just like you. Not to mention the fact that the russian ones tend to have paint schemes designed to blend in with the terrain.

Ultimately though its like everything else, it takes practice. Just as you develop an eye for spotting ground units, the same goes for other aircraft. By make no mistake, it's still damn hard to spot them before its too late. Which is why a constant lookout and mutual support it so important, the more eyes you have looking and the more often they scan each bit of sky, the higher your chances of seeing that incoming bandit.