SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Cooperative Multiplayer

Missile performance. Remember that the performance of a missile differs depending on aspect. For example, if a missile is said to have a range of 20 miles, you can assume this is 20 miles under ideal conditions: when fired “head on” at a bandit at the altitude as or lower than you. You will therefore find that the same missile is not going to reach a target that’s 19 miles away from you and 10,000 feet higher than you are. The reason is that although the missile has a theoretical range of twenty miles, the bandit will be constantly moving in the same direction as the missile — so by the time the missile has covered the 19 miles to where the target was when the missile was fired, the target may well have moved a further 14 miles — and with the missile’s energy exhausted the bandit will escape. You may find that in such a situation, you may have to move to within 5 miles or less for a successful shot.
Missile aspect. This follows on from the above. Personally, I prefer to have a missile launched from either way below or way above me. Why? Remember how a missile works: after launch, the motor often only burns for a few seconds. This pushes the missile to its top speed, after which the motor burns out and the missile relies on its kinetic energy to take it to its target. This has several consequences. Firstly, the energy available to a missile is limited, and this becomes much more important once the missile's motor has burned out.

Let's assume that I've got a missile coming straight towards me, but that it's been fired from 10,000 feet higher than me. Let's also assume that its motor has stopped firing, and so the missile is relying only on its kinetic energy to reach me. On the "minus" side, gravity is helping the missile in its quest to reach me — because I'm lower than it, gravity is pulling it towards me, doing some of the missile's work for it. Theoretically, this should be something to worry about. But in practice? Not necessarily. As the missile closes in on me, I start to pull violently up and to, say, the right. Now, the very same force which worked against me — gravity — works in my favor. Remember that the missile's own motor has burned out, so it's relying on its kinetic energy to reach me. Firstly, by executing such a sharp maneuver I require the missile to "bleed" energy to stay with me in the turn — energy that it won’t be able to replace. In addition, the missile is — if I've executed my turn properly — going to have to go from pointing downwards to heading back up again — which gravity, in all its wisdom, is going to try to prevent. So hopefully the same force that pulled the missile towards me will now attempt to pull the missile away from me.

I mentioned above that I'd prefer something coming at me from high above or down below. I've explained why I'd prefer it coming from high above. But why way below? Again, let's assume the motor in the missile has already burned out. Well, in this situation, gravity is already pulling at it, bleeding its speed off to such an extent that — hopefully — it won't be able to reach me. And if it does manage to get close then hopefully it will have lost so much speed in “the journey up” that it should be fairly easy to dodge.

Of course, not all missile defense is so easy. Often, you’ll have multiple threats coming in from multiple angles. The answer? Stay sharp, do your best, and let the others know if you’ve punched out!
Wingman utilization. This is one that could fill multiple books by itself, but I’m going to be brief here. Firstly, two (or more) aircraft working together can often be of greater effectiveness than the sum total of their parts. You will almost certainly find AI opponents using “text book” tactics in this regard, and so it’s important to ensure that your own group cohesiveness is maximized. For this topic, I wholeheartedly recommend the chapter on wingman tactics in Dan Crenshaw’s book — short, but thorough and easy to understand.
Radio comms. Use them! Don’t clog up the channel with irrelevant chatter, but be sure to keep your flight lead — and each other — informed of where you are. Subject to the flight lead keeping an open mind on comments from other members of the flight, it’s his job to manage the flight from a formation point of view — and he can’t do this if he’s unsure where you are. If he, for example, asks you to pull left by 15 miles in order to bracket an incoming threat, then do so — and let him know when you’re in position. Likewise, call enemy contacts on your radar, even if you think your lead already has them. Better safe than dead. Editor's note: See the SimHQ article here on Brevity Codes by Vince Putze.
React to threats. Countless times I have avoided — and have seen others avoid — reacting to a missile warning beep in the hope that “just another few seconds” will enable me to get a shot off. If you have those few seconds, then great. But what often happens is that you will never get your shot off, because while waiting to do so the missile causing the beep will hit you. And when you’re dead you can’t shoot back. This is really just an example of target fixation — becoming so focused on killing your target that you ignore threats. Don’t do it. If you’ve got a missile coming towards you then you’d better react. If you’re close enough to your own target, a “snapshot” may buy you some time — a missile shot “down the throat” of your target but without a radar lock. With any luck, this will also force your target to “go defensive”, thereby denying him the opportunity to close on you while you’re still on the defensive. And if you’re really lucky, you may even get a kill from it.
Just to recap on a fundamental piece of advice here: know your objective. As I mentioned earlier, it's no good charging off like John Wayne and shooting down almost everything in sight, only to return and find that the package that you were meant to escort has been decimated. Likewise, you can kill all the tanks in the world, but if that surface-to-air missile site is still active, your buddies coming in low to attack the airfield are going to be in serious trouble. To lift a quote from the end of the original Star Wars movie: "stay on target" (note here we’re talking about mission objective — you still need to avoid target fixation mentioned previously).

Go To Page 4

Click here to go to top of this page.