Starting the Mission When you are satisfied that you have absorbed all the necessary information and that the aircraft is suitably loaded for the mission, you can click on the map Screen Button labelled "Take off". After a brief pause to download the flightplan to your aircraft, you will find yourself in the cockpit, on the runway, with immediate clearance to take off. Before you do so, be sure you have worked through the "Taking Off" section in the Elementary Flying Training chapter, or at the very least consulted the checklist given in the Aircrew Notes. Final Exercises Now that you can read the flightplan before you take off, we suggest that you try out the Bombing Range exercises available under the Trainig option. Remember that this is live flying, not like the Simulator. You can`t arrange for the aircraft to bounce off the ground, you must fly the aircraft at actual weight, and you can`t just blow up or shoot down anything that takes your fancy. The Debrief for the Bombing range exercises will include a score for accuracy (see the Debrief chapter for details). Once you`ve done these, try the Training exercises tagged "OCU" (Operational Conversion Unit), which simulate actual missions apart from enemy fire, then go back to the Simulator, where another more difficult and realistic set of OCU missions (plus air combat exercises) are available. Switch on enemy activity and as much realism as you can handle, then try these out against a simulated enemy, in all weathers. We cover how to use AFDS Track mode to follow an IDS flightplan in the advanced Flying Training chapter. For an ADV flightplan which may contain a CAP pattern. It`s very similar. Just take off and engage Track mode. The AFDS will fly you to the CAP Start and feed you into the pattern. If left under AFDS control the aircraft will loop between CAP Start and CAP End points until it runs out of fuel. You can break out of the rut by either disengaging the AFDS or using the "Skip to next waypoint" key to advance the selected waypoint past the CAP End point. There`s a Simulator OCU CAP mission which lets you try this out. When you can fly and survive the OCU missions against the worst the simulator can throw at you, you`re good enough to take your chances in Combat. Start with the single Mission options. You have three different War Zones to fight over, so it`ll take you some time to exhaust all these possibilities. Some of the missions are solo exercises, some of them involve coordinating with other aircraft - remember that timekeeping is just as important as accuracy. When you think that you`re getting the hang of it and you understand the tactical problems, move on to the next section and put your own ideas into practice. SECTION 2 - PLANNING YOUR OWN MISSIONS 2a 'FREE FIRE' and LEVEl 1 CAMPAIGNS This section assumes that you have read and understood all the instructions on basic use of the Mission Planner given in the preceding section. There are several ways to get started on planning missions for yourself. You can try editing some of the Simulator Missions for practice, and then go on to Combat or you can select "Mission" from the "Combat" screen, followed by either of the Missions titled "Free Fire" from the Selection Menu. When you arrive at the Mission Planner for a "Free Fire" mission there will be no preset mission plan at all, and it`s up to you to select a target, a patrol station or other obective and create a flightplan. Apart from the need to define your own objective and flightplan, a "Free Fire" mission works exactly like any other single mission, and is entirely self-contained. The Campaign option is the next step up, providing a connected series of missions set in a military situation which evolves over time. If you choose "Campaign" on the "Combat" screen, and one of the Level 1 Campaign scenarios you will see a bare outline of a mission which simply specifies an objective, rather than a complete flightplan. This outline is your Task for the next mission, and you must do all the detailed planning, then fly it. When (and if) you return from that mission your commander will present you with a new Task to plan and fly. The Campaign will last for as many missions as it takes to accomplish the Campaign objectives, or to lose the war, or until a stalemate is reached. When you need a break, you can exit from the Mission Planner to the Mission Selection Screen and save the current situation to reload and continue later. IDS missions in a campaign will have a variety of aims. They might be directed at reducing the enemy`s air-power (Counter-Air Operations), denying him the routes he needs to supply or move his ground forces (Interdiction Operations)., destroying other vital enemy installations (Attack Operations), or beating down AA threats to clear the way for further strikes (Defence Suppression). You may also be called upon to provide Close Air Support, attacking enemy ground forces actually on the battlefield. This will only happen if your side is in a truly desperate situation - and if it does, your chances of survival are not good. The best way to avoid this is to succeed in your primary missions. After each mission, the Task for the next will reflect your degree of success so far, and its effect on the military situation on the ground. At this level you don`t have to decide what to hit or when The Task specifies the time and the target, the nature of the target dictates the choice of weapon but it is up to you to decide how to reach the target, attack it and return with the maximum probability of success and the minimum risk. If you are trying out the "Free Fire" Missions, you can choose anything on the map as your target and you can land at any airfield you like, provided its allied, but you will always start at the same airfield. On the map you`ll see that the Take off waypoint A is already set, marking your position. Read, or suffer the consequences... This is not a threat, it`s a friendly warning. This section aims to cover all you need to know to create flightplans, though we can only give you general advice on tactics. Some of this material is relevant to Campaign play, some is only relevant to "Free Fire" missions. Which ever of these options you plan to try out, read all of this section first - once you start creating and editing missions you have enough freedom of action to screw up in a big way! It`s vital that you understand what you`re doing - you`ll soon discover that you won`t be allowed to take off if your flightplan doesn`t make sense. Turning a Task into a Flightplan When you select a Campaign scenario on the Mission Selection Screen, instead of the Briefing you would expect for a single mission you will see a summary describing the military situation at the time the Campaign starts. The title of the Campaign scenario itself should give you some clue as to what to expect. When you Commit and move to the Mission Planner, two differences should be seen: a) there is a flightplan laid out, but it`s just a skeleton, and b) the Map Screen Button which used to say "Briefing" is now titled "Task". Click on the Task button to see the Air Tasking Message - these are your orders. They will describe the type of mission in terms of role (Attack, Interdict, Counter-Air etc.), the type and callsigns of the aircraft taking part, the position and nature of the target(s), the type of weapon to be used and the time for the attack. Times may be specified as TOT (Time On Target), which must be achieved in order to coordinate with other activity, or as NLT (Not Later Than), which leaves you with some discretion. In Level One Campaigns, you will only need to create a flightplan for yourself, and the following paragraphs deal mainly with that situation, deferring the problems of multi-aircraft mission planning (Level Two Campaigns) till later. Problems, Warnings and Errors When you first see the skeleton flightplan of a new Task on the Mission Planner map, you`ll often notice a small window without a close box, titled "Problems". This appears because the Task outline as it stands is not a viable flightplan, and the planning support systems are automatically alerting you to the fact. The planning systems apply a set of rules to any flight plan to detect unreasonable situations such as unflyable course changes, impossible or improbable timings and speeds, or Initial Points too close to the target. When a flightplan bends or breaks these rules, the Problems window will automatically appear with a list of messages. These messages will start with either "ERROR" for a problem which must be fixed before you take off, or "WARNING" when the problem is not so serious as to completely invalidate the flightplan. You can either tackle these problems immediately or leave them until later, but you will not be permitted to download the flightplan and take off while any ERROR message appears in the list. Every message is tagged with the callsign (mission number plus letter) of the aircraft to which it applies: 003 A for example. This is done so that when you`re planning multi aircraft missions you know which message applies to which aircraft. Setting and Moving Waypoints If you are planning a "Free Fire" mission there will be only one waypoint on the map when you enter the Mission Planner - the Takeoff Point, where you and your aircraft are based. You will have to lay down all the other waypoints for the mission yourself. If you are starting a Campaign, an IDS Task outline will usually preset Target Waypoint(s), and an ADV Task will usually preset a CAP point, depending on the nature of the mission, plus an Approach Point. You will generally create your flightplan by inserting extra waypoints between the ones you are given, and then dragging them into position. Both operations are quite straightforward, and complications only arise when you place waypoints too close together, so for your initial experiments it is best if you keep waypoints spaced well apart. In order to start placing or moving waypoints you must first click on the Map Screen Button labelled "Flightplan" thus opening the Flightplan Window. Remember that a flightplan may have up to 15 waypoints, but no more. When the limit is reached, the system will refuse to create any more. Placing Waypoints Clicking anywhere on the map with the LEFT mouse button will place a new waypoint at that point, adding it to the end of your current flightplan. The new waypoint will be a Turning Point by default unless it is placed in the ILS coverage of an allied airfield, in which case it will be created as an Approach Point. Dragging Waypoints Place the mouse pointer crosshair on the symbol of the waypoint you wish to move and hold down the LEFT mouse button. While you hold the button down you may drag the waypoint about the map by moving the mouse. "Rubber Lines" will be drawn to show the new legs to and from the waypoint affected. When you release the mouse button the waypoint is "dropped" in its new position, and the legs to and from will be redrawn, together with the curve of the turn following the waypoint. Depending on how far you moved the waypoint, other legs and curves may also be affected. The smoothness or otherwise of the curve drawn can be adjusted on the Preferences screen. Note that dragging a waypoint also selects it (see below). Dragging a waypoint from place to place will not change its Type unless it enters or leaves the ILS coverage of an Allied airfield. A Turning Point dragged into ILS coverage can become an Approach Point, and an Approach Point dragged out of ILS coverage reverts to a plain Turning Point. Selecting waypoints A waypoint must be selected before certain operations can be performed upon it. The letter of the selected waypoint is highlighted in the Flightplan Window. Waypoints may be selected either by clicking on the appropriate letter in the Flightplan Window, or by clicking inside the appropriate waypoint symbol on the map. Deleting Waypoints The Delete button is not shown in the Waypoint Strip of the Flightplan Window unless it`s permissible to delete the selected waypoint. Clicking on this button deletes the selected waypoint, as you`d expect, and causes waypoints later in the flightplan to be relabelled as necessary. Earlier and later curves and legs may be affected by the deletion. Waypoint A can never be deleted. When working with a flightplan for multiple aircraft, only formation waypoints may be deleted. Inserting Waypoints The Insert button is not shown in the Waypoint Strip of the Flightplan Window unless it`s possible to insert a new waypoint BEFORE the currently selected one. New waypoints are inserted halfway between existing ones, and must be dragged to their desired positions. Waypoints after the insertion point will be relabelled as necessary. Waypoints cannot be inserted if all 15 available waypoints are already used. When working with a flightplan for multiple aircraft, insertions can only be made in legs common to all aircraft in the formation. Turning Circles As you should already know, the planning system plots a curve after each waypoint, leading into the straight leg towards the next. The radius of the curve is governed by the Speed set for the adjacent waypoint and the control authority of the AFDS system: the faster the speed, the wider the turn. When you are dragging waypoints about, the legs to and from the waypoint are drawn as "rubber lines" but the curve is not drawn (this is to Speed up the screen redraw). However, the turning circle calculations are still performed and the lengths and directions of the legs are accurate. Because the direction INTO the next waypoint is changed, the curve out of that waypoint will change also, affecting the direction into the next, and so on. The effects will ripple on through the flightplan for a greater or lesser distance depending on how large a change you made, but you will not see the ripple effect until you drop the waypoint in place and the legs affected are redrawn. For this reason, if you wish to control the precise direction of more than one leg in a flightplan (e.g. for a JP.233 attack run or an approach for landing) it is best to lay out all the waypoints first, then precisely place the Target Waypoint(s), select weapon(s) and delivery mode(s), set any fixed Speeds (and/or times) and only then to work through the flightplan in order from start to finish dragging waypoints to set direction, so that changes rippling forward affect only the legs which you have not yet adJusted. Two kinds of problem can arise when you place two waypoints too close together. The first of these problems can affect any pair of waypoints, and happens when the second waypoint is INSIDE the diameter of the turning circle curve from the first. Diagram 5.7 shows that this means it is quite impossible for the aircraft ever to reach the second waypoint by turning towards it - instead it will circle until you use the Next Waypoint key to skip the offending waypoint. Not only will this type of error be flagged in the Problems Window (e.g. "WARNING: OO1A - C too close to B.), but the curve will not be drawn and the preceding and following legs will meet at the waypoint as straight lines. The second type of problem affects only Initial Points and Targets. The planning system calculates how far back from the target the weapon will be released, and demands that you must have time to line up on a straight attack run before you reach the release point (or the pull-up point for a Loft attack). This type of problem will be flagged in the Problems Window (eb. "WARNING. 002A - IP too close to X"). Target Waypoints and Attacks We`ve now covered the procedure for placing Turning (or Approach) waypoints, but position is only one of the attributes of a waypoint. Many of the other attributes (Time, Speed, Altitude etc.) can also be adjusted as necessary, and the Target Waypoint is the type which most often requires tinkering of this sort, as well as the setting up of the weapons Package for the attack. Because it`s the most critical type of waypoint, we`ll cover its set-up in detail, though you won`t need to perform this entire operation from scratch unless you are planning a "Free Fire" mission or playing at Command level. Creating and Placing a Target Waypoint (IDS only). The accurate placement of a Target Waypoint is obviously critical. The first problem is to identify the target on the map. Assuming that you know what type of target you want to hit and roughly where it is, centre the map on the approximate position and place a standard Turning Point waypoint there. There are two ways of doing this: one is to call up the Point Data Window and explore with the mouse pointer, the other is to use the Target Finder, which can also be useful for choosing targets in the first place. Click on the Map Screen Button labelled Targets, which calls up a window showing two lists. Click on an item in the left list to select a category of target (Military, Transport etc.). The right list will change to display a list of individual types of target in the selected category (e.g. Hangar, Hardened Munitions Store etc.). Click on the type which describes your target. Every target of that type on the map will now be marked by the Category Flag symbol, helping you pick out your intended target from other buildings in the same area. Category Flag symbols will be shown on the map while the Target Finder window is open regardless of whether or not Category Flags are turned on in the Key. When you close the Target Finder window, the Category Flag symbols will disappear unless they are enabled by the Key. Drag your intended Target waypoint (still a Turning Point at this stage) to the target and drop it there. Now call up the Waypoint Window if it isn`t already open. At the left end of the line displaying the waypoint. Type is a button showing a small circular symbol. This is a Cycle button, used to cycle through a range of alternative options. As you can see, there are many other buttons of this type in a Waypoint Window. Click once on the Type Cycle button. The waypoint Type changes from Turning Point to Target, the label changes to X, Y or Z, the Waypoint Window expands and acquires the extra displays necessary to define the weapon Package, and the waypoint symbol on the map changes shape and "snaps" to the intended target. Whenever you change a Turning Point into a Target waypoint, the waypoint will snap to the exact position of the nearest object. If Category Flag display is enabled, it will snap to the nearest flagged object. The "snapping" feature can be disabled by holding down the Alt key while dragging the Target Waypoint The Turning Point before the Target will automatically change to an Initial Point. The planning systems will also select a default weapon Package based on the type of Target, but if you like you may change this. To select a Weapon type just click on the desired button in the Weapon display. If the weapon type has more than one possible delivery mode you may choose from the available options by clicking repeatedly on the Cycle button at the left of the Delivery display. At the right of the Delivery display is the Safety Height Button; clicking on this sets the waypoint Altitude to the minimum safe height. Below this is the Salvo Size display, showing how many weapons there are in the Package. The Cycle button beside it can be used to select a size of 1, 2 or 4 weapons, depending on the type. The button to the right shows the recommended salvo size for the recommended weapon, and clicking on this will set that figure. Setting up a CAP Station (ADV only) The "typical" ADV Combat Air Patrol mission involves taking off, flying to a given position and altitude, and then flying round and round in a "racetrack" pattern waiting to intercept enemy aircraft. In order to set up a CAP mission, create a skeleton flightplan (if it`s not provided) and place a Turning point roughly where you want each end of your racetrack pattern to be. Space them fairly well apart to start with. Now select the first of these two waypoints and call up the Waypoint Window. Click on the Cycle button for the waypoint Type, and it will change to "CAP start". This will automatically convert the next Turning Point into a "CAP End" and you should see the leg between the two change into a circuit with rounded ends - your CAP pattern. Normal practice would be to line the racetrack up so that the long axis points in the general direction of the enemy. This means that on one of the two "straights" you`re pointing your radar (set for maximum range) in the direction from which you expect business, on the other you`re mainly watching your Radar Warning Receiver, and at the ends you sweep the airspace on either side of the pattern. Once a CAP pattern is set in a flightplan you will not be allowed to change the types of any other waypoints, though you can still insert, delete or drag points as usual. You can still go back to the CAP Start point and change it back to a "Turning Point" though. This will also change the End point and give each Turning Point an active Type Cycle button again. Times of waypoints after a CAP pattern are obviously fairly meaningless you don`t know how long you`ll be waiting there. Altitude For normal air-to ground operations the Altitude Authority Mode shows "Ride Height" and the value set is 200 (feet), so that if the aircraft is under AFDS Track mode control it will fly these legs terrain-following at 200 feet. We have just mentioned the button which copies the minimum Safe Height for the selected weapon type into the Altitude fire but in fact you can set up any feasible combination of Authority Mode and value. Clicking on the Cycle button at the left of the display changes the mode from "Ride Height" to "Altitude Hold" or vice versa. When changing from "Altitude Hold" to "Ride Height" the altitude figure will "snap" to the nearest valid setting which is available for terrain following (200, 300, 400, 500, 750, 1000 or 1500 feet). If you have selected "Ride Height" and you want to change the actual height value, click on the button showing the value itself. This will call up two buttons showing arrows, one above and one below the figure. Clicking on the upper arrow button will change the height figure to the next valid ride height UP (if any), and clicking on the lower arrow button will change to the next valid height DOWN. Clicking on either button and holding the mouse button down will cause the figure to change rapidly. Clicking again on the figure itself will dismiss the arrow buttons. If you select "Altitude Hold" as the "Altitude Authority Mode" each digit of the altitude figure will appear as a separate button. Clicking on any of these will call up arrow buttons to change one digit at a time up or down. Note that a "carry" will affect the next digit to the left or right as you change any one digit up past 9 or down past 0. If you`re planning legs set for Altitude Hold, don`t forget to check the Flightplan Profile Window to make sure that you`re not proposing to fly through hills. The planning system will check your altitude on the Attack run against the minimum Safe Height for weapon release, and issue a WARNING if its set too low. If you`re going to fly the attack run manually you can ignore the warning and run in as low as you like provided that you`re at a safe height (for horizontal distance) by the time your bombs explode. Times and Speeds If you`ve been trying out these procedures as you go, you may have noticed that when you change a waypoint`s Type from Turning Point to Target, the Speed setting for the Target Waypoint changes to a higher figure, depending upon the weapon type selected. The system uses two default values for speed, 420 knots as a standard cruise, and 550 knots as a standard speed for attack runs; and it will normally calculate waypoint times using these values. If you wish, however, you may set any feasible speed value you want for any leg, and if you do the Speed status will change from "Free" to "Fixed". "Fixed" status means that the planning systems will juggle other times and speeds which have "Free" status as much as necessary in order to ensure that you can fly your attack run at this speed and still maintain your timetable. If a Time On Target (TOT) is specified in the Tasking Message, it would be normal for the time at the Target waypoint to be set as "Fixed" too. Regardless of what the Tasking Message specifies this should be mandatory if more than one aircraft is involved "In the operation" though each aircraft`s TOT may be different by a few seconds, Times and Speeds are closely bound together, so it makes sense to deal with both at once. Time and Speed status can be changed using the Cycle buttons at the left of their respective display lines, but it would be more common to change the actual Time or Speed value first, which will automatically change a "Free" status to "Fixed". Changing the Speed value is done just like changing the Altitude value, by clicking on a digit and then using the arrow buttons. Use the Cycle button to the left of the value to change the speed representation between Knots, IAS and Mach Number, whichever is more convenient. The Time value is changed in a similar way, except that here there are buttons for hours, minutes and seconds rather than for the individual digits. Time and Speed Problems A waypoint`s Time is the planned time of arrival (and / or departure) at that waypoint. The Speed is the average speed over the preceding leg of the flightplan which will get you there at that time. Speed at a waypoint is also used to calculate the radius of the turn on to the next leg, so you`d better wait till you`re on the straight run to the next waypoint before you accelerate or decelerate Calculating the Times and Speeds by hand and making them fit together would be very tedious, time-consuming and error-prone, so the planning systems will automatically recalculate and check all Times and Speeds every time a waypoint is created, moved or deleted. The system is very capable, it saves you a great deal of work, and it won`t create impossible timetables unless you flatly order it to - and even then it will use the Problems Window to inform you that you are asking for the impossible or the unlikely. We`ve tried to make this system as intelligent and easy to use as possible, but the laws of physics impose a number of irksome restrictions, given that we`re simulating a Tornado rather than a Time Machine. It`s easy to be carried away by the possibilities of the scheduling system - and if you are, you run the risk of ending up in a straitjacket, one way or another. You need an appreciation of what`s possible and what isn`t. Let`s assume that we have a target (X) ten nautical miles away from its Initial Point (call it D). The Time at X is 12:00:00 Fixed Speed is 600 Knots Fixed (see diagram 5.9). If you were to look at the Waypoint data for D, you`d find the Time at D showing as 11:59:00 Bound, and you would be unable to change status or value directly, though the Time would change if you dragged D to a different position. Whats going on? The Speed of 600 knots for the leg D X dictates exactly how long it should take to fly the distance from D to X: at 600 knots you`ll cover the 10 nautical miles from D to X in 1 minute. That means that you MUST pass D at 11:59:00 - no other answer is possible unless you start allowing for variable speeds over the leg. That would open up a can of worms which we would prefer to keep firmly shut. That`s why the Time status at D is "Bound". There is another variant of the same problem. If you Fix the Times of two adjacent waypoints, the Speed for the leg between them (the one given for the second waypoint) becomes Bound; it is dictated absolutely by the Times and the distance between the waypoints. The best way to avoid creating problems for yourself is to Fix Times and Speeds only when necessary and most of the time it`s not necessary, under normal circumstances the only Time in a mission which needs to be fixed is the Time-On-Target, and the only legs where Speed need be fixed are legs where you have no choice but to cross defended zones. Tactics for Mission Planning We`ve now covered the mechanics of manipulating waypoints in the Mission Planner, but the really important question is; what to do with them? What you should be trying to achieve is the most effective attack possible with the minimum risk. It`s time to look at tactics. Assuming that you know what your target is, you can either accept the weapons package which is given in the Tasking Order or selected automatically by the planning systems, or you can use your own judgement to find some alternative type of attack which will increase your accuracy or decrease your risk or ideally both. To make this sort of judgement for yourself you`ll need to be familiar with all the weapons, their capabilities, their delivery modes and the sort of accuracy achievable with each. The best and safest way to acquire a feel for the subject is to practise intensively in the Simulator. Assessing the risks, however, really requires practical live experience of trying to penetrate enemy territory, defend yourself and deliver attacks under fire. You`ll have to acquire this experience for yourself, but we`ll try to give you some idea of the questions you should be asking yourself: Choosing the Axis of Attack The direction in which you make your attack may largely determine its success, for several reasons. Your direction of approach should to strike the best possible compromise between three demands which frequently conflict with one another: 1: The ideal Attack Run on a defended target is the one which overflies no AA threats and uses the terrain to mask you from the target defences until the last possible moment. 2: In any unguided bomb or dispenser attack, the salvo or the submunitions have the greatest probability of landing in an area or "footprint" which is relatively long in your direction of flight and relatively narrow from side to side (see diagram 5.11). The ideal Attack Run will exploit this effect to maximise the chance of destroying something worthwhile. The simplest example of this is a JP233 attack on a runway. If your Attack Run takes you over the runway along its length, or (even better) at a small angle to it, almost all of the submunitions will fall on the runway, making the maximum number of holes in it. If you make your attack at right angles across the runway, a much smaller proportion of the submunitions will fall on the runway itself, and most will be wasted. Military installations, especially airfields, are frequently laid out in such a way as to avoid concentrating too many targets in a straight line, but it will almost always be possible to identify good and bad directions for an attack. 3: The ideal Egress Run from a target is the one offering the fastest way back into cover, leading to the quickest safe exit from enemy territory. Routing to and from the target area Having set up the Target Waypoint and the waypoints immediately before and after it, the next thing to do is to construct the rest of your route from take off to Initial Point, and then back to the airfield at which you intend to land. Creating the waypoints to do this is easy using the Insert button, and you can drag the resulting waypoints about the map at will. The problem is deciding where to put them. Here are some of the factors which should affect your decisions: AA Threats: Many if not all of the enemy`s AAA and SAM sites will be known, and also the effective ranges of the weapons there. It`s obviously not a good idea to fly within range of these if you can avoid it. You can use the Key to command the display of the relevant threat circles, showing the areas to avoid. If at all possible you should also avoid any area where there is large scale ground fighting in progress, or indeed any area where enemy ground forces are thought to be present in large numbers. Remember that unless your intelligence is perfect, you don`t know the position of every last threat, and the positions of the ones you do know about can`t usually be given with absolute precision the threats are mobile, and its in the enemy`s interests to move them about from time to time. Be wary of narrow gaps between threat circles - the gap may not exist in real life. When trying to assess where unknown defences are most likely to be placed, ask yourself where the potential targets are. If it`s obviously worth your while to attack it, it should be equally obvious to the enemy that he needs to defend it. Radars. The positions of the enemy Early Warning Radar stations are known together with their coverage. You can use the Key to show the estimated coverage. An estimated floor, of radar coverage - the height below which you must fly to avoid detection by ground radars - is also available in the Profile window for your route, or the Point Data window for any point on the map, but this is only an approximate value. If you want to postpone detection and the resulting interception by enemy fighters for as long as possible, you should a) stay as low as reasonably possible, and b)stay in hilly areas as much as possible, to obtain the best masking effect. The Profile window is especially useful in minimising your chances of detection. If the enemy has an AWACS aircraft on station, you must assume that he can see you almost anywhere. Fighters. If the enemy can track you, he will dispatch fighters to intercept if he can - or you might simply cross the path of a standing fighter patrol. You can use the Key to show likely enemy CAP (Combat Air Patrol) stations, where Fighters circle ready to be directed to intercept intruders like yourself. If this data is reasonably reliable, it will give you a feeling for the likely speed of the enemy`s response if and when he detects you. More rarely, fighters might be scrambled from readiness on the ground to intercept you, but this gives a much slower response and is therefore less dangerous - unless the enemy saw you coming from a long way off. Distance Flying at maximum weight, especially in enemy airspace, is to be avoided if at all possible. The length of your route, the load you carry, and the speeds at which you plan to fly will all influence your fuel requirement. Therefore the distance factor must be balanced against the others given above. The estimated fuel consumption for the flight is shown in the Analysis window. Selecting Take-off and Landing Direction Call up the Met. Report and study the wind strength and direction. Now set up the first waypoint after take-off (inserting a new one if necessary) so that you will be taking off with a head wind component. See diagram 5.13 for an explanation of how the direction of the first leg dictates which runway you will be set up to use. As for landing; the Approach point specified in the Task will normally be set up to land you into wind, and you will not need to change this unless you wish to land somewhere else (see below). Landing away from base If the distance you have to fly becomes excessive, you might consider planning to land at another allied airfield This is always possible, as in the case of diversion for an emergency landing. The only penalty for this is that during a Campaign the time required for the ferry flight back to your operating base will delay the start of your next mission. When you return to the Mission Planner your aircraft will be shown at its base airfield - the time for the ferry flight will already have been added to the clock. If you have to make an emergency landing on a road in Allied territory, you can be back at your base with a time penalty of no more than a few hours, but it may take a day or more to return your aircraft to the flight line. If reserve aircraft are available you`ll notice no change in your strength, but if your reserves are depleted then your strength will be reduced temporarily. The same effect may be observed when your aircraft returns damaged and needs repair, or when heavy losses in the air or on the ground outstrip the rate of replacement. Relocating to another airfield As the campaign progresses, your commander may decide to base you at a different airfield. This decision could be prompted by a variety of factors. For example, your current base might be threatened by an enemy advance or badly damaged by air attack, your priority targets might be clustered on the other side of the map, or enemy action might have disrupted the supply system in the base area. When the order comes to do this, the Air Tasking Message will conclude with a line like "Relocating to Allied 3" and the skeleton flightplan will show a landing at the new base. Landing anywhere else will incur the ferry-flight delay. SECTION 2b - LEVEL TWO CAMPAIGNS At this level you are responsible for creating flightplans for your whole formation of Tornados and selling up coordinated attacks. This section assumes that you have masytered the process of mission planning for a single aircraft. A Task at this level will normally prescribe an attack on a large enemy installation an airfield, for example - assign targets to each aircraft and specify a Time on Target. It will be your responsibility to set up the individual attacks and their precise timing. Here is a list of basic principles for achieving a successful coordinated attack: 1 : Concentration in Time. No-one reacts instantly: it always takes time to grasp the situation and work out a response. This is true of AAA and SAM crews and also of their equipment it takes time to slew and elevate a gun barrel or a launcher, and time to defeat your ECM. If your entire attack is compressed into the space of a few seconds with no advance warning you may be gone almost before the enemy has started shooting. If your attack consists of four aircraft making separate passes in sequence, the first aircraft through may escape undamaged but the rest will almost certainly be shot to pieces. Even if you don`t achieve complete surprise, you can still hope to saturate the defences. The idea here is that you have many guns shooting at many different aircraft rather than many guns shooting at one aircraft at a time. 2: Dispersion in space. So you set up your attack with four Tornados making a single fast sweep over the target in tight formation. You`re in and out in thirty seconds or less, but everybody gets hit. What went wrong? This should be obvious - all the defences were shooting in the same general direction at the same time. The enemy can concentrate all his firepower on the small volume of space which contains all of your aircraft, and stands an excellent chance of hitting something, even if it wasn`t what he was aiming at. If you send the aircraft in from many different directions at the same time, you divide the enemy`s fire and reduce his chances of scoring a hit. 3: Go for the defences first, and do it from as far away as possible. ALARM`s Indirect mode was designed for situations like this, but when the weapon is "loitering" there may be quite a delay between the time when the defence radars turn on, and the time the missile hits them. You may need to provoke the defenders into turning on their radars BEFORE the strike arrives but if you`re going to alert them it would not be a good idea to concentrate their attention in the direction from which the main strike is approaching. Another "stand off" tactic would be to pop up far enough to see the defences on your ground radar, designate them as targets-of-opportunity, and then perform a loft attack on them. The main difficulty here is in identifying defences on the radar display, which can only be done on the basis of their positions around the field. It is standard practice to set up AAA close to each end of a runway to give the sites a minimum-deflection shot against a runway cratering attack, but SAM launchers may be harder to spot. Obviously a single attack of this type can only hope to take out a single site, but this might be a good way of achieving the object stated above - shocking the enemy into activating his search and weapon radars so that ALARM can home on them. If you have to provide a visible threat in order to attract his attention, it might as well be a real one. 4: Try to avoid blowing each other up. This should be obvious, but it's well worth repeating. Don't set up the attacks so that one aircraft flies through the debris hemisphere of another`s bombs. Assume that a 1000 lb bomb has a debris hemisphere of 1000-feet (305 m) radius, and that a separation of 200 feet (61 m) is adequate for all other weapons. You can estimate distances using the coordinate displays on the Target Waypoint and Point Data windows - the coordinate values are in tens of metres. While you`re at it, try to anticipate and avoid potential collisions. You can achieve separation by varying approach direction, altitude or Time-On-Target (but only within a couple of seconds either way - see next point). 5: Be on time. If you`re not, not only will you waste all your planning, but the risk will be increased for every aircraft involved, as you sacrifice one or more of the principles given above. Arriving on schedule is the responsibility of the individual aircrew, but it`s up to you as planner to ensure that the mission timetable has enough slack in it to survive minor mishaps and diversions. As with all "wish lists" of this sort, it may be difficult or impossible to achieve all of these objectives at once. You`ll have to decide for yourself how to strike the balance between them. The enemy's disposition and level of awareness will determine just how much you can get away with. Flightplans for Formations At Campaign Level Two, when you enter the Mission Planner you will see a Task outline, just as at Level One. For most of any Flightplan, all your aircraft will be flying the same route in a widely spaced formation, and their individual waypoints, legs and times are automatically generated at an offset from the formation leader. Approaching the Target, the formation will split as aircraft diverge to their individual Initial Points to start their separate Attack Runs on different targets. Each aircraft will then follow its own Egress Run until the formation reforms at a set rendezvous, with timings and speeds set up so that all aircraft arrive simultaneously at their correct positions. They then follow a common route (with automatically staggered Waypoints and Times) back to the airfield for landing. In a Formation Flightplan there will be one button in the Aircraft Strip of the Flightplan Window for each aircraft in the formation A is the Formation Leader - you. Clicking on an aircraft letter selects that aircraft's flightplan for viewing and editing. All aircraft in a formation will have exactly the same number of waypoints and legs in their flightplans. Some will be formation waypoints, where the Formation Leader`s waypoint automatically determines the position of the corresponding waypoint for every other aircraft currently in the formation. Others are independent waypoints, where each aircraft`s position and all other waypoint attributes can be set individually, within certain limits. Limitations on Waypoint Editing Insertion or deletion of waypoints can only be done when the waypoints or legs affected are common to all the aircraft in the formation. Buttons for functions not allowed for the current waypoint will be disabled. This is why the skeleton flightplan generated for a multi-aircraft mission includes a Turning Point between Take-off and Target, and another between Target and Approach Point. If these waypoints were not included you`d find it much less conveinient to insert new waypoints in the flightplan - don`t delete them. Split and Formate The right most button in the Tool Strip of the Flightplan Window will show two alternative legends according to the nature of the currently selected waypoint - "Split" or "Formate". When the selected waypoint is a formation waypoint, it will show "Split" and clicking on the button will make this into an individual waypoint for all aircraft in the formation. You`ll be able to see the effect of this on the map since the individual waypoints will automatically spread out from the original position. Each independent waypoint will be of the same Type (Turning Point or Target) as the formation waypoint which was split to produce them. All other waypoint attributes except position will also be inherited. You can now use the buttons in the Aircraft Strip of the Flightplan window to select the flightplan of any aircraft in the formation. Each aircraft`s independant waypoints may be dragged about or edited in any way you like, provided that it`s physically possible for each aircraft to fly its independent track and rejoin the formation on time at the next formation waypoint. If you`re asking for the improbable or the impossible, you`ll see a WARNING or ERROR in the Problems window. This obviously adds another kink to the problem of "Bound" Times and Speeds, but once again the problem is inherent in the situation, and you`ll have to learn to handle it by experiment. When the selected waypoint is an independent waypoint, the button will show "Formate". Let`s say that your currently selected waypoint is D, an independant waypoint, and you`ve selected aircraft B`s flightplan. Clicking on "Formate" will turn D into a formation waypoint at the same position. The formation waypoint attributes will be inherited from the original independent waypoint. This system of setting all waypoint attributes from the one selected to split or formate upon is intended to save you time and trouble. For example: at Command level you`ll be creating flightplans for multiple aircraft attacks from scratch, and the inheritance system means that you can create one target waypoint for the formation, then split it into as many independant target waypoints as you have aircraft. If we didn`t support this, you`d need to change the type of every independant waypoint by hand! As ever, every silver lining has a cloud. The skeleton flightplan automatically generated from the Tasking Message will give every aircraft an identical Time- On-Target. If the targets are closely spaced, this would result in your aircraft blowing one another up. As we suggested above, you will need to adjust direction, altitude and time of attack to ensure that this doesn`t happen. SECTION 3 - COMMAND LEVEL At this level, you have complete command authority. At Campaign level you had the job of turning a Task into a flightplan; at Command level you create the Task as well. You will need to exercise all the skills you have already learnt in mission planning and flying, but in addition you will need to make the all important decisions about what targets to strike, and how to divide your resources. This section assumes that you are familiar with all the material covered in the first two sections of this chapter. In order to select "Command" on the Flight Options page, the pilot whose log is currently selected must be Command-qualified, holding the rank of Wing Commander or Group Captain. When you start "Tornado" Group Captain deFault`s log is selected and he qualifies. If you select "Command" using the deFault log, and then call up the Pilot Log screen in order to select another log, only the logs of Command-qualified pilots will be available. As with the "Campaign" option, the Mission Selection Screen for Command level presents a selection of starting scenarios, and allows you to select any one of the three War Zones. In addition, you can save one Command game per War Zone to reload and continue later. The Mission Planner in Command Mode When you commit to a Command scenario, you will see that the Mission Planning Screen looks exactly as before except that the Map Screen Button which used to read "Briefing" or "Task" is now titled "Command". Also, if you click on the Flightplan button straight away, the Flightplan window will not appear This is because you haven`t yet created any Tasks, which can only be done by calling up the Command Window. You probably won`t be surprised to learn that you call up the Command Window by clicking on the Command button. The Command Window This window allows you to review intelligence data to help in selecting your objectives, and then issue orders to accomplish them. It contains a strip of buttons at the top, and its lower portion (the Priority Target Finder) closely resembles the Target Finder called up by the Targets button. The buttons are labelled "Situation" "Air Power" " "Relocate" and "Tasking" and their functions are described below: Situation This calls up the Situation Report window, which provides a summary of the overall military situation. Use this to make decisions about the general nature of your operations. Are Allied ground forces so hard-pressed that all your effort must be devoted to supporting them? Is your base airfield threatened by advancing enemy forces? How much difference did you make with your last strike on the enemy supply line? How effective are enemy air operations? What`s the state of your own supply system, and what can you do about it? Many of the more specific questions will need to be answered with the aid of other Command window faciiities, but the Situation Report is intended to give you the big picture, providing a context in which to evaluate detailed intelligence. Use it or you run the risk of winning your battles but losing the war. Air Power This button calls up the Air Power window, which summarises the location nature and strength of air force units on both sides. Data regarding enemy forces is not guaranteed to be complete or 1OO% reliable. Use this window to gauge the progress of the air war and guide your selection of targets for Counter Air operations. Relocate Click on this button to call up the Relocation window, which shows buttons corresponding to all serviceable Allied airfields. If you need to shift the force of Tornados under your command from their current base to another, you can do it from here. There are many possible reasons for doing this: your base may be endangered by advancing enemy ground forces, or under-supplied or too far from the action, or too vulnerable to enemy air strikes. Your current base airfield will be highlighted - to shift your Tornados to another airfield just click on the appropriate button. Be aware of the danger of concentrating too many Allied air resources at one base; if the enemy mounts a powerful strike against it, he may destroy or ground a critical proportion of your available forces in one operation. If the enemy`s counter-air capability is destroyed or degraded, however, the risk may be acceptable. When you use this facility to shift your base, all flightplans for the tasks you generate in this round should be set up for landing at the new base. Tornados landing elsewhere (including the old base) will incur the normal time penalty for ferry flights. Tasking The Tasking window called up by this button allows you to allocate Tasks to formations of Tornados, or single aircraft. Once you have created a Task, you can create the flightplan(s) for that Task. The window shows the number of Tornados available for operations, both IDS and ADV. When you first call up this window in each round, one line will be displayed showing a Mission number followed by a button showing the type of Tornado assigned, with a Cycle button beside it. This button will initially show "None" but by clicking on the Cycle button it may be changed to read "IDS" or "ADV" depending upon availability of the type. When the type is changed to something other than "None" two further buttons appear to the right, each with a Cycle button beside it. The first shows the number of aircraft assigned to the formation, defaulting to 1. The associated Cycle button can be used to change the number of aircraft between 1 and the maximum available, and as this figure is changed the availability figure will fluctuate accordingly. You can't change the figure to 0 but the same effect can be achieved by selecting a Type of "None". The right most button can be used to display a description of the mission type as a reminder of your intentions. Click on the Cycle button to view the descriptions available, and use the most appropriate. When you create a Task by assigning aircraft to it a mission number for a further Task will appear on the line below, up to a maximum of four Tasks or until all available aircraft are assigned. You may only modify aircraft assignments for the latest Task in the list - if you change your mind and want to modify tasks earlier in the list, you must delete all later tasks by setting their aircraft types to None, in order from the last backwards. You should also bear in mind that you will ALWAYS fly aircraft A in the first Task in the list. Once a Task has been created by assigning aircraft to it, its flightplan may also be created in the normal way by calling up the Flightplan window. You can select which Task`s flightplan to edit by clicking on the appropriate mission number in the Tasking window. Priority Target Finder This system gives you easy access to processed intelligence data, showing you which facilities are most important to the enemy`s war effort. These facilities should therefore be the most desirable targets. Which category of target you set out to strike should be determined by the broader view you gain from the Situation Report and Air Power windows. The quantity and quality of intelligence available will govern the quantity and quality of the evaluations provided by the Priority Target Finder. It is within your power to improve the level of intelligence available to the Allies see below under Comms. Parallel calculations are made from the enemy viewpoint, to display the nearest Allied equivalent to each Priority Target, if one exists. If it`s worth doing, do it to them before they do it to you. Like the Target Finder, the Priority Target Finder shows two columns; the left being used to select a broadclass of targets, and the right to display a complete list of all the individual items in the class. The items on the right are each marked with one of three symbols, a tick, a cross or a question mark. A tick indicates that intelligence can offer you targets of this type, whereas a cross tells you that no information is available - better intelligence is needed. A question mark indicates that intelligence is still being evaluated - targets arent available yet, but they will be sometime soon. When such items are ready, the symbol will change from a question mark to a tick. Obviously, you can only select ticked items for display on the map. The Priority Flag markers work just like the Category Flags, they are automatically enabled when this window is open, but when it`s closed you can use the Key window to control whether or not they are displayed. Heres a list of all the possible classes and items, which are significantly different from those in the Target Finder. Class: Command This class selects enemy headquarters, where known, and flags the most important. Destroying an HQ may have serious effects on the coordination of enemy forces and the efficiency of the enemy supply system. Command: Rear HQ These are permanent hardened facilities normally well behind the line of battle and very well defended. The highest level of command is found here and a successful strike may seriously disorganise the organisation and movement of enemy reserves and supplies. The effect on enemy forces directly engaged at the front is real, but not immediate or direct - it may take some time before the results are apparent. Command: Field HQ These are the headquarters of force commanders close to the front line. They are normally very soft targets relying on camouflage and mobility to avoid detection, but there will usually be local AA defences. Destroying a Field HQ will have an immediate effect on forces engaged in battle, but this effect may not last for long. There may be a short term gain in intelligence as enemy message traffic increases in the attempt to compensate for the damage to the command structure. Class: Comms Communications targets are important in themselves, and vital for the potential effect on intelligence. Most of the secure communications on both sides are routed through a limited number of sites connected by land-lines or lines of sight. Everytime one of these centres is put out of action message congestion increases on the remaining parts of the secure net and installations served by the destroyed facility must resort to less secure channels. This insecure message traffic at the very least reveals locations, and may yield high grade intelligence. This can vastly improve the efficiency of your operations. Comms: Main Node These are permanent facilities, easily recognisable by the microwave relay tower on the site. They will normally be well defended. Each is in line of sight with at least one other, forming a network. Priority will normally be give to Main Mode targets which serve the battlefield area, or which represent points where the comm. net may be cut, in order to achieve the maximum increase in insecure message traffic. Enemy organisation and supply may also be affected as the network is degraded. Comms: Field Relay These are temporary camouflaged installations providing secure communications between the battlefield rear area and the main comm. net. Destruction of a Field Relay should improve the yield of local intelligence and Disrupt local command and supply to some extent Class: Logistics This class of targets covers the enemy supply system perhaps the most important class of all. There`s a standard quote which says that amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics, and it becomes more and more accurate as time goes on. Advances in military technology usually seem to mean that weapons get expended faster and more vehicles use more fuel. The days when an army could largely support itself by foraging in the local countryside are at least a century gone; modern forces consume almost unbelievable tonnages of stores - and always more than they planned for. As a result of this, all roads and railways leading towards the battlefield will be vital channels of supply - if you can cut these channels the enemys fighting power will be very seriously reduced. Other important targets in this category are the stockpiles at each end of the supply routes. Logistics: POL Installations POL is the standard military abbreviation for Petrol, Oil, Lubricants. If stocks of these are seriously depleted, all vehicles from trucks through tanks to aircraft will be seriously affected, though airfields normally have large stocks on site in well-protected underground tankage. POL installations are generally permanent and hard to hide, hence they will almost always be well defended Logistics: Main Depots These are main centres of supply - major stockpiles holding huge quantities of everything needed to supply armed forces. Take these out and the supply pipeline will empty as stores are consumed but not replaced. You will not totally prevent resupply, but it will be thin and intermittent. These are large conspicuous installations with defences, usually too large to destroy in a single attack. Logistics: Forward Dumps These are small, dispersed, camouflaged stockpiles which supply the needs of local forces and are replenished in turn from the major stockpiles. Destroying one of these should have a powerful local effect. Logistics: Choke Points Choke points are places where transport routes can be cut with maximum effect and efficiency - in Tornado, all choke points are bridges. This can be a very effective way of crippling the enemy supply system. Alternative routes will often exist, but they will usually be longer - all supply convoys will normally be sent by the shortest available route from A to B. On a typical Tornado map there are a great many bridges, so this priority facility tries to analyse enemy traffic patterns and select as targets those bridges which are most heavily used. The value of these points is also obvious to the enemy so these targets may well be defended. Class: Politics This is a miscellaneous category for targets which are not strictly military. Some may adversely affect enemy morale, some may help preserve allied morale. One (Decapitation) offers your best chance of bringing a war to a quick conclusion. Politics: Power Station Depriving the enemy population of power may have a significant effect on morale - provided that it is already depressed. It`s not a war-winning move if enemy forces are doing well. Politics: SCUD Launchers The classical political distraction target, familiar to all Gulf War fans. The missiles are so inaccurate that they have very limited military value when fitted with conventional warheads, but unfortunately their effect on civilian morale can far outweigh the little damage they`re likely to do. In fact a city is about the smallest feasible SCUD target. The other problem is that they`re mobile and hard to find. If you decide to go looking for them, don`t expect to find them exactly where intelligence said they were. SCUD-hunting is necessarily a solo exercise that you`ll have to take on yourself, using the ground radar and the cameras and probably flying at night. Politics: Decapitation A Decapitation (beheading) strike is designed to take out your enemys political leadership, on the assumption that their successors will either be more willing to talk, or will paralyse the military command structure by fighting amoung themselves for power. The main prerequisite for a Decapitation strike is really excellent intelligence - you won`t be offered this type of target until its available. Politics: NBC Capability NBC is for Nuclear / Biological / Chemical weapons. If this category of target is offered, they represent research and manufacturing sites rather than stockpiles These weapons will never be used in the war you`re fighting, but the destruction of the facilities might be an important morale booster for your side. Class: Battlefield These targets represent places where you might directly influence the land battle. Two of these types of target represent the (approximate) locations of enemy AFVs (Armoured Fighting Vehicles). Don`t go for them unless the overall situation is desperate. They`ll be very heavily defended, you`ll need to spend time in an extremely dangerous environment looking for them, and target recognition is difficult. When you do find a target, you`re unlikely to be able to take out more than one small group of vehicles at a time. The third type of target, the Repair Centre, is a much more sensible place to strike. Battlefield: Direct Support These are Close Air Support targets - enemy forces in contact with allied forces. Target recognition is critical to avoid shooting up your own troops - and very, very difficult. Battlefield : Reserves As the name suggests, these are the locations of enemy armoured units in reserve. The problem of target recognition is less important here (provided that you know where the front line is), and the available targets may be more concentrated. Still a risky sort of target. Battlefield: Repair Centre AFVs of all sorts are complex and surprisingly delicate machines. If they`re doing anything more strenuous than standing still, they break down regularly and require frequent specialised maintenance. When you add battle damage repair to this maintenance load, it becomes an enormous task, and the efficiency of the repair system has a dramatic effect on the front-line strength Repair and maintenance take place at all levels from units in the field up to major workshops with heavy equipment and large stocks of spares. If you can knock out or seriously damage these major repair centres it can have a devastating effect on enemy ground forces, because repair of anything worse than minor breakdowns and battle damage will slow down severely or stop altogether. Repair centres are found at large military bases, and you can exline to the right, you should take up a heading to the right of 090 (say 095 or 100°). Hold that until the ILS shows you that you are close to the centreline, and then bring the heading back towards 090. If you correct your heading in this way but find that the ILS is not creeping back towards the centre, only then should you make a bigger correction. The second point to remember is that the glideslope beam (the up and down reference) slopes down. You cannot track the glideslope centreline unless the aircraft is descending steadily. Just as in lining up on the localiser; the closer you get to the centreline, the more slowly you want to approach it. We`ll deal with the classical method of using the throttle to manage your rate of descent when we look at purely manual approaches; here we`re going to cheat by using the Autothrottle to hold a steady speed while you actually fly the approach path using the stick only Don`t be Hypnotised by the Instruments As you get closer to touchdown and the runway looms larger you should transfer your attention from the ILS cues to the outside world. The ILS is highly useful when the runway is distant, but in all except the very worst visibility the last stages of the approach will be much easier to fly by eye. It`ll also be much easier to achieve the shortest possible touchdown and landing run. Setting your Approach Speed So what do we tell the Autothrottle? If you remember, approach speed is calculated by taking stalling speed in the current configuration and adding a percentage. Stalling speed for the Tornado depends on 1) Wind Sweep position, 2) Flap setting and 3) Aircraft weight, so there`s a lot of scope for variation. We give a ready reckoner approach speed table in the Aircrew Notes, but here`s a simplified version of it predigested for three different weights: Recommended Approach Speeds at 25° Wingsweep Weight: Flap Setting: Zero Man`vre Mid Full Light 180 172 153 135 Medium 210 202 183 165 Heavy 248 240 221 203 Light case: 33000lb / 15000kg - Virtually empty aircraft Medium case: 45000lb / 20400kg - No external stores" full internal fuel Heavy case: 60000lb / 27200kg - Near maximum take-off weight Note that we only give figures for 25° wingsweep here. You`d never expect to touch down with the wings in any other sweep position unless the sweep mechanism itself jammed - we`ll try that later. While you can drastically speed up the process of approach and landing by coming in at higher speeds and decelerating at the last minute, don`t try it until you really know what you`re doing. The medium weight case is probably the most useful: set the Autothrottle to about 210 knots to bring you within flap-limiting speeds, lower the flaps all the way and then set 165-180 knots. Just be aware that this won`t work if the aircraft is too heavy. If you`re carrying more weight than this it would normally be sensible to dump some of it using the External Stores Jettison option before starting the approach. When setting the Autothrottle as low as this you must remember that you`re not far above stalling speed. If you manoeuvre hard to chase the localiser needle or point the nose high in the air to climb to the glidepath, your airspeed may fall to the danger point. Another way of gauging the correct approach speed is to watch the Alpha (Angle of Attack) meter - either the HUD display or the mechanical guage next to it. If you`re in the right speed range for an approach at your current weight, the reading should generally be somewhere between 8 and 12°. If it`s higher than this then you`re too slow, if lower then you`re too fast. Check the Approach & Landing Emergencies section at the end of the Aircrew Notes for the figures to use in unusual cases. Semi-automatic Approaches - Summing up Provided that you understand what the ILS display is telling you, and you can fly the aircraft to centre it in the beams ON THE RUNWAY HEADING with the Autothrottle holding a sensible airspeed, you should arrive at the runway threshold in good shape for touchdown. Use the Landing Practice Setup in the Simulator until you`re confident that you can track the ILS by hand. There is one further technique you may find helpful for making small corrections left or right to track the localiser - using the rudder controls. We havent said much about the rudder so far, and we won`t say much more, because in modern aircraft it`s almost redundant as a manual control, and has a very limited effect at any but the lowest speeds. On the approach, however it can be useful. Look up the rudder commands under Primary Flight Controls in the Control Summary. MANUAL APPROACHES Once you can fly a semi-automatic approach as described above, you`ve mastered the art of reading the ILS and acquired a feeling for the art of correcting into the centre of the beam without overshooting. There is a furthur challenge you may wish to take up: purely manual landings with and without the aid of the ILS. If you can do everything we`ve discussed so far, you should be able to handle this without too much trouble and no self respecting pilot should ever be satisfied until (s)he can land with the absolute minimum of artificial aids The AFDS, the Autothrottle or the airfield ILS may be knocked out by battle damage. You may have to make an emergency landing on a airfield, taxi track or a road. In any of these cases you`ve got to be able to cope. If you can`t, you can only eject - and throw away an extremely valuable aircraft Manual Approach with ILS Here we`re talking about flying an approach without using the Autothrottle. Managing speed at the same time as flying the approach adds considerably to the difficulty and demands a quite different flight technique. Normally you think in terms of controlling speed with the throttle and controlling rate of descent or climb by pointing the nose up or down. At the low speeds involved in flying an approach. However, it is actually easier to reverse this convention. Think in terms of controlling speed by raising the nose (to slow down) or lowering the nose (to speed up) and controlling rate of desecent by opening the throttle (to descend more slowly) or closing the throttle (to descend faster) Obviously there will be side the nose will usually reduce your rate of descent as well as your airspeed, and so on, but these side effects are actually easier to deal with using the reversed convention of airspeed, pitch and rate of-descent: thrust. Let`s give some examples of how the process works: 1. Speed correct, but BELOW the glideslope You respond by throttling up to raise the engine RPM figure one or two per cent. Now watch your airspeed. As soon as this starts rising above the target figure, raise the nose slightly to bring the speed back on target. The end result is that you`re still at the correct approach speed, and you`re descending more slowly than you were. 2 Speed correct, but ABOVE the glideslope Throttle back a little. As the airspeed drops below the target, lower the nose a little to recover the speed. 3 ON the glideslope, but speed LOW Lower the nose slightly, and watch for the speed to start rising. As it reaches the correct figure, raise the nose again very slightly. If this leaves you below the glideslope refer to example 1. 4 ON the glideslope, but speed HIGH Raise the nose a little till the speed starts to drop. Wait till you`re close to the target speed and then lower it a fraction to stabilise at the new speed. If this leaves you above the glideslope, deal with the problem as in example 2. It`ll take a lot of practice in the Simulator before you can do this reliably. To make your initial attempts easier, use a higher approach speed than normal This will give you more margin for error. You`ll probably find that the largest problem is the time lag in engine response to throttle changes, and aircraft response to the change in thrust. For this reason it`s best to try to avoid large changes of throttle setting unless absolutely necessary. Having said that there`s no way to avoid one large throttle movement: your first action in the Simulator Landing Practice scenario should normally be to close the throttle completely (and use airbrakes) in order to lose speed. As your speed decays towards the chosen approach value you will need to open the throttle again, but it`s best to do this in gradual stages, starting well above the approach speed. Until you`ve got the feel of the situation its best to be very very cautious and make the smallest possible control inputs. Line up on the localiser (left-right reference) first, and then devote most of your attention to matching the glideslope by juggling speed and rate-of-descent. Be wary of trying to fly to a fixed rate of descent in feet per second as shown on the HUD or the VSI; the higher your approach speed, the faster you must descend to match the fixed 3o glideslope. This sort of flying takes intense concentration and a thorough practical understanding of how and why the aircraft responds to the controls. Its very hard work. If you want a break from the grind, try some purely visual landings (see below). But if you can learn do this. Be assured that you could learn to land most aircraft in the real world. Manual Landings by Eye Purely visual landings are actually far easier than manual ILS approaches. Once you`ve got the knack. If you`re going for a straight-in approach (like an ILS approach) you`ll usually find that it`s best to start closer to the airfield and higher than usual. This will improve your view of the runway, and it will also mean that you can fly most of the approach with the throttle more or less closed, using brief bursts of power to stretch your glide. You will probably also find that it`s easier if you fly most of the approach a little faster than usual, with manoeuvre or mid flap settings and the gear up. This means that you can drop the gear and the flaps at the last minute as extra airbrakes, rather than hang about on the edge of the stall point. Use the Angle of Attack to judge your approach speed. If you`re really ambitious, you might try a standard military curved circuit approach. Lining up on the runway from the final 180o turn is more difficult than in real life because of the restricted and inflexlible views available from the cockpit - something which we can`t do much about until Virtual Reality style helmet mounted displays become commonplace. Once you become accustomed to visual, manual landings you`ll probably find yourself doing it this way most of the time. The ILS is a godsend in poor visibility, but it takes a long time to fly the full distance at approach speeds. You can put the aircraft on the ground much faster for yourself - provided that you can see to do it. LANDINGS AND WIND DIRECTION Up to now we`ve more or less ignored the influence that wind speed and direction has on landing, but in the real world it`s a major safety issue. The "Landing Practice" Simulator exercise gives you still air, which is a very rare situation in real life. In practice the wind direction will dictate your take off and landing direction and the length of ground run required. The reason isn`t all that hard to understand. If an aircraft was flying straight and level at an Airspeed of 150 knots directly into a hurricane-force wind blowing at 150 knots, it would be hovering over a point on the ground. The Airspeed Indicator shows your speed through the air, which is itself moving over the ground as the wind blows. To take a more realistic (though still extreme) example, an aircraft flying directly into a 50-knot wind at an airspeed of 150 knots is actually travelling over the ground at 100 knots. If that aircraft flew at the same airspeed (150 knots) in the same direction as the 50-knot wind it would be travelling over the ground at 200 knots. In both cases, the wind speed and direction make no difference to the flying qualities of the aircraft - its flying the way you would expect it to at an airspeed of 150 knots. The difference lies in how fast it`s covering ground. Speed over the ground makes at least two important differences when it comes to landing. The first is in the approach. If you`re landing into the wind, subtracting its speed from your own, the approach will take longer and you`ll need a lower rate of descent than you would in still air. This may be tedious, but it`s not unsafe. If you land with the wind behind you, adding its speed to yours, everything will happen faster and you`ll need to descend faster than usual to stay on the glideslope. Rushing the process is clearly not desirable. The other (and more important) difference comes when you touch down. When your wheels hit the runway airspeed ceases to matter (you`re no longer flying), and groundspeed becomes all-important. Landing into the wind your groundspeed is lower and your landing run shorter. Landing downwind your groundspeed is higher and your braking distance increases. The choice should be obvious. Wind direction also matters for take-off, for similar reasons. If your aircraft standing on the runway facing into a 20-knot wind, it need only accelerate to a groundspeed of 130 knots before the Airspeed indicator shows 150 knots and you can rotate to lift off. If you started with a 20-knot wind blowing past the aircraft from behind, you`d need to roll a lot further to reach a groundspeed of 170 knots in order to have an airflow of 150 knots over the wing. Everything which flies and has a brain takes off and lands facing INTO wind whenever possible. If it isn`t possible, you may be in trouble. Crosswinds When an airfield is built the designers do their best to line up the main (or only) runway with the prevailing wind in the area, so that most of the time aircraft will be able to take off and land directly into wind. Sometimes, however, geography and financial constraints make this impossible; the longest possible runway on the site just has to run in some other direction. The wind is also less than 100% reliable, and will blow from inconvenient directions at least a part of the time. You can`t usually suspend operations altogether because the wind isnt cooperating; you just have to make the best of it. Unless the wind is blowing across the runway exactly at right-angles, which it very rarely does, you can always resolve it into a component along the runway (a head wind or tail wind), and a component across it, the crosswind (see diagram 8.21 ). When the time comes to learn about the Mission Planner; you`ll find that there`s help available to analyse the situation and help you select sensible take off and landing directions. Here and now we`re concerned with how to deal with the practical results. It shouldn`t take much reflection to decide that you want to take off and land with a head-wind rather than a tail wind. But whatever you do, you`ll just have to live with the crosswind component. A crosswind component at take off will make very little difference to a heavy and powerful aircraft like the Tornado, but a stiff crosswind will make a large difference to your approach. There`s a Simulator exercise called "Crosswind Landing Practice" which you can try out. You`ll find that in order to fly a straight line down the centre of the beam you will need to keep the nose pointing a few degrees to the upwind side of the centreline. If you point the aircraft straight down the beam, it`ll be blown sideways by the crosswind component. Be especially careful at and after touchdown when flying this sort of approach - you may need to do some brisk steering to avoid veering off the runway. If you can afford a good long roll after touchdown, you can mitigate the effects of a crosswind by flying a faster approach than usual. This will mean that you can point the nose closer to your intended path. Conversely, a slow approach with a heavy crosswind will be very difficult to fly accurately. LANDING DAMAGED AIRCRAFT You can practice various emergencies quite easily in the Simulator. Want to try a wheels up landing? Simple! Just leave the gear up. It is possible, but you must touch down very lightly. Lighten the aircraft as much as possible, but you a flapless landing, leave the flaps up. Pretend that the wing sweep mechanism has failed, and try landing with 45 or 67° sweep (check the Approach & Landing Emergencies data in the Aircrew Reference section first!). Try a landing with the engines at idle thrust without touching the throttles. For a real dead-stick landing, do a maximum jettison then light up full reheat to burn off the remaining internal fuel. Keep the aircraft at low level and that won`t take long. When the engines flame out, zoom-climb the aircraft to turn as much speed as you can spare into altitude. If you can find a runway, well and good - if you can reach it. If not, it`ll have to be a road. Try to find a stretch without bridges. Obviously the aircraft will glide furthest in a shallow dive at 25 sweep, but that`s not saying much - no fast jet glides well. Hold off on the flaps and the gear to the very last minute unless you have speed or altitude to burn. There is also a special-purpose Simulator mission called "Single Engine Handling" - try it. If you examine the Control Summary you`ll find that you can turn off the HUD, the MFD or the back-seat Tab displays. Flying on the panel instruments without the HUD is difficult but possible, and an excellent way to put some excitement back into the job of landing if you`re beginning to find it too easy. On Damaged Runways Don`t forget that while you`re off trying to crater the enemy`s runways he may visit your home airfield to return the compliment. Apart from leaving your gear up, it`s hard to think of a more humiliating way to end an otherwise successful mission than to land perfectly and then run the aircraft into a hole on the roll out. Keep your eyes open on the approach, and use the forward looking camera at night. If your runway is damaged, you`ve either got to stop before, land after or swerve around the craters - or land on another runway. If you dont want to divert or you can`t for lack of fuel, you must either land on one of the long taxiways or use a disused runway (these are the ones with white crosses at the threshold). Provided that they haven't been damaged in the attack, these surfaces should be perfectly suitable, though respectively narrower and shorter than the main runway, and of course there`s no ILS. Watch out for taxying aircraft on the taxiways and parked aircraft on the disused runways. In the Simulator there's nothing to stop you trying a landing like this at any time If you really want to get into the spirit of the thing you might try attacking your own airfield and then landing - it'll give you a whole new perspective on JP233 attacks ln the last resort you can always try landing on a nearby road. EMERGENCIES Emergencies divide into two rough categories; recoverable ones which offer some prospect of saving the aircraft as well as yourself, and those where you must abandon the aircraft in order to save your life. The tricky part is deciding which kind of emergency you`re facing, and doing so fast enough to take the appropriate action in time. Emergencies include systems failures and loss of control for any reason We`ve already dealt with stall recovery, and suggested Simulator exercises to practise landing with various equipment failures. If you make yourself familiar with the controls available you can simulate and try out a great many system failures, and the exercise can only do you good. Here we`ll discuss three topics;jettisoning stores to lighten the aircraft ejection and spin recovery drill. Jettisoning weight will usually mean aborting your mission, but it will always improve the performance of the aircraft if you still have control. Ejection is always the right response in any of the following situations; Engine Fire, permanent loss of control at any altitude, any loss of control at low altitude. The Tornado will never spin unless the SPILS system is disabled or damaged, but when it does the recovery technique is highly unconventional. Jettison Options There are three graduated jettison commands, and three matching lights on the Front Panel. In increasing order of severity these are: Jettison External Tanks only Releases the drop tanks on your inboard pylons to save weight and drag. If the tanks are empty then you improve performance and range at the expense of losing re-usable tanks, the supply of which is not infinite. If the tanks still contain fuel then the relative performance improvement will be far greater, but you will probably have sacrificed range or endurance. This may prevent you from completing your mission, or returning from it safely, but if a Tornado is involved in any kind of close air combat your chance of surviving, let alone winning is not good unless you dump as much weight as possible. The green Jettison light illuminates to confirm separation Jettison Tanks and Offensive Stores This is the option you need if hard-pressed by an enemy fighter in close combat, or in the event of engine damage. It dumps all external stores except AIM9L air-to-air missiles for self-defence. The amber and green Jettison lights illuminate to confirm separation. Jettison All External Stores and Internal Fuel down to 1000 lbs / 450 kg This option is intended for use just before landing a damaged aircraft, if the situation demands it. All external stores are dumped without exception, and all internal fuel bar 1000lbs with which to complete the approach, leaving you with an aircraft in its lightest possible powered configuration. The red, amber and green Jettison lights will all illuminate to confirm that the stores are gone and the fuel dumped. Ejection Ejection itself is a very simple action once activated. The system thinks for itself and does its best to maximise your chances of survival right up to the point when it opens your parachute for you. However, it`s still up to you to decide when to pull the handle. You must decide for yourself whether a) the situation is so dire that you must eject now or you definitely won`t survive, b) with the aircraft in its current attitude you probably won`t survive ejection, or C) the aircraft will probably stay in one piece, under control, for long enough to allow you to manoeuvre to improve your chance to survive or avoid capture There are two situations in which ejection is definitely the only way out. These are an engine fire, which (for our purposes) will always result in a catastrophic explosion within a few seconds, or a loss of control with no prospect of recovery before the aircraft hits the ground. If and when an engine fire is detected the warning system will go off and the condition will be flagged on the Warning Panel in the back cockpit. Loss of control can occur in many different ways, but you will probably be in no doubt when it occurs. All that remains is to decide whether your chances will be improved by waiting and normally, they wont. The Tornado`s ejection seats, like those in almost all modern combat aircraft have what is called a zero / zero capability the zeros are for altitude and airspeed. In other words, you can eject from a motionless aircraft on the ground and expect to survive. The seat contains a rocket motor to lift you and throw you far enough away that a) your parachute has time to deploy before you hit the ground and b) with any luck you won`t come straight back down on top of the burning wreckage of your aircraft. The seat is quite smart, and will do its best to tailor its response to the situation but there are unavoidable limits to what you can expect. Because the ejection system fires the seats upward from the cockpit, ejecting with the aircraft inverted is suicidal at low level. At the other end of the scale, ejection at a high Mach number is also risky because of the appalling air blast. Another hazard is involved because high speed usually means high altitude. The seat mechanism contains an automatic opening device which will normally delay the deployment of your parachute till you have fallen to a survivable altitude (10000-20000 feet might be a common setting) and decelerated to a sensible speed. The mechanisms involved are simple, robust and highly reliable, but they are not immune to damage - and they are designed to fail safe. If possible. For an automatic parachute opening device, failing safe means deploying the parachute sooner rather than later (or not at all). All parachutes open harder the higher the deployment altitude, and a high-speed opening at high altitude may cause serious injury or death through opening shock (even in the normal case this might involve a 20 G jolt), or through the risk of anoxia and exposure on the way down. If time and the situation allow, the best way to maximise your chances is to eject at low speed (up to 300 knots, say) at a moderate altitude (say 10000 to 15000 feet). When all is sad and done, however, there are many situations where ejection is the only option you have left, and if you don`t pull the handle straight away you won`t get another chance. SPILS, SPINS AND SPIN RECOVERY The Tornado, like all modern combat aircraft, has a sophisticated flight control system. In simple aircraft the pilot`s controls are directly connected to the control surfaces of the wings and tail, which are moved either directly by the pilot`s muscles, or by a servo system which uses hydraulics to boost muscle power. In more sophisticated aircraft like the Tornado, the pilot`s controls are not directly connected to the control surfaces. Instead, the pilot uses the controls to tell the flight control system what he wants the aircraft to do and the flight control system then decides for itself how to move the control surfaces in order to carry out the pilot`s command. Without systems of this sort, modern combat aircraft could never have achieved their current high standard of agility. They are agile because they are unstable; a small control surface movement can produce a radical change of attitude, and they have no inherent tendency to fly in a straight line, or even the right way up Flying such an unstable aircraft by hand would be like walking a tightrope in a high wind; even if you could do it, the effort, concentration and stress would exhaust you in a few minutes. When the flight control system is working, it constantly senses the aircraft`s departures from the commanded flightpath and makes minor adjustments of the control surfaces to correct them before the pilot even has time to notice. Extra protection is often built into such a system to enable the pilot to manoeuvre the aircraft aggressively and confidently right up to the extreme limits of its performance (as in air combat), while the automatics keep the G load within the structural limits and monitor the angle of attack. If the aircraft stalls despite all their efforts, such systems will then do all they can to keep the aircraft stable till it regains flying speed. The system which provides this extra safeguard in the Tornado is called SPILS, standing for Spin Prevention and Incidence Limitation System. Spinning Spinning is a hazard associated with stalling. When the airflow over the wings and the tail breaks down the aircraft is left falling through the air rather than flying. If the aircraft is rolling or yawing (changing heading without banking) when control is lost, a complex combination of aerodynamic, inertial and gyroscopic forces may arise in which the whole aircraft either rotates constantly round one or more axes (a steady spin) or alternates between two unstable positions (an oscillatory spin). In this situation normal flight control just doesnt exist, and the aircraft is falling rapidly out of the sky. Fast jets with swept wings have the most vicious spin characteristics of any aircraft, and some are impossible to recover - all the pilot can do is eject. When it is working, the SPILS system in the Tornado detects any incipient spin problem at the stall point and acts to correct it before the spin can become established. Like any other system in the aircraft, however, the SPILS system may be disabled by combat damage or random failure. If this happens any stall may develop into a spin - so you need to know how to recover once the spin has started. Spin Recovery The Tornado`s spinning characteristics and recovery drill are unusual for two reasons; first, it is a swing-wing aircraft and the nature of the spin changes with wing-sweep setting; second, it is unlike most other aircraft in that it has no aileron control surfaces on the wings, moving the tail surfaces differentially instead. If you are an experienced pilot of other aircraft types, DON`T ASSUME THAT YOU ALREADY KNOW THE RECOVERY DRILL! Let`s set up the problem in the Simulator Select one of the Free Flight (Airborne) exercises. When you arrive in the cockpit, turn off the SPILS system. This should probably be done with the Control+I key combination, but check with the Control Summary for your machine (Secondary Flight Controls section). Be careful when doing this: just hit the key once, because the control toggles SPlLS on / off and there`s no indicator apart from the one on the wings right back panel in the back, which only illuminates when the system fails due to damage and NOT when you switch it off deliberately. Now sweep the wings right back to 67°" cancel Autothrottle and go to full reheat (Slam Open twice). Let the aircraft accelerate to high speed on the level, then cancel reheat (just Slam Shut while in reheat). Leaving the throttles at Max. Dry power (100% RPM). Pull the aircraft up into a near vertical climb and take your hands off the controls. The aircraft will zoom-climb to a high altitude, losing speed rapidly. At about 220 knots IAS you should see the nose begin to drop in the stall. Now apply full sideways stick - the direction doesn`t matter. Suddenly the aircraft goes crazy - the HUD references and the instruments are all over the place and the horizon flashes past your nose at short intervals and strange angles. Hit F1 for an external view and you`ll see that the aircraft is tumbling end over end in all three axes as it falls. This is characteristic spinning behaviour when the wings are fully swept. Now hit the Sweep Forward key twice, to bring the wings to 25 sweep. As the wings move forward you should see the wild tumble stabilise into a rapid rotation. If you move back to the cockpit you will see that the horizon is now fairly stable, but the aircraft is twirling like a propeller. In order to recover from the spin you must first identify which way the aircraft is rotating. This one excellent reason why you should bring the wings to 25 sweep first, because it is extremely difficult to tell which way you`re going if the aircraft`s in a full blooded tumble. Having identified which way you`re turning: APPLY AND HOLD FULL BACKWARD STlCK AND PRO-SPlN AILERON! In other words, hold the stick right back and to the side you would normally use to bank in the direction you`re already turning. This is almost the exact opposite of the spin recovery drill used in most aircraft, which is classically performed by centering the stick, pushing it forward and applying opposite rudder. This classical procedure is utterly useless in a spinning Tornado. Having applied full backward stick and pro-spin aileron, you will need to hold the stick in this position for a variable length of time, which will never be less than a couple of seconds and sometimes a good deal longer. Meanwhile watch the Altimeter and the Airspeed Indicator. Standard Operating Procedure in the Tornado is to eject immediately if the aircraft enters or continues a spin below 20000 (yes, twenty thousand) feet, but you may find that you are willing to continue recovery procedures below this height after you have some experience. The decision is entirely up to you. In a steady spin the Airspeed Indicator will show a very low figure, far below normal flying speeds. One of the first signs that the recovery process is working will be a steady rise of speed. As the figure climbs towards the normal ranges you should also see that the rotation rate is slowing. When it stops, the aircraft is under control again, so immediately center the stick and (if you can still afford the height loss) push the nose down to accelerate faster. Here`s the Spin Recovery Procedure again, in short form: Once you realise that the aircraft is spinning: 1 Eject immediately if there is insufficient height for a recovery (say 20000 feet), otherwise monitor altitude closely throughout the recovery process. 2 Command full forward sweep to 25°. 3 As soon as the direction of rotation is identified, apply and hold full backward stick and pro spin aileron. 4 First sign of recovery will be a sustained increase in airspeed. 5 When rotation ceases, accelerate to a safe speed as quickly as possible EXTERNAL VIEWS -------------- Although "stepping outside" as you are flying along is not exactly "authentic", a different perspective on a problem can often be useful and let`s face it - its fun! We have included no less than six "external views" that range from the commonplace to the spectacular. A status line at the bottom of the screen shows your aircraft speed, altitude etc. (a) Tracking view Perhaps most common of all is the option to "step outside.. your cockpit" and watch yourself fly along. When first selected, you will be positioned immediately behind your aircraft, following at a fixed distance. If your prefer, you may use the zoom in and out facility to adjust your perspective at either normal or fast rate. When you`ve had enough of looking at tailpipes, try the "adjust tracking" controls. These allow you to swing your viewpoint around your aircraft in either direction, quickly or slowly, to give you a full 360° outside view. The "reset" option will position you behind the aircraft again and for good measure we have the "toggle lo/hi" feature which puts you level with your aircraft or slight below it. It is worth mentioning that when you leave Tracking View, your viewpoint and zoom level are stored so that when you next select this option your viewpoint appears just as you left it. For example, if you wish to watch an attack from a particular angle say looking back at your aircraft from in front and below - you can set the viewpoint in advance, fly the attack, and then switch to Tracking View at the moment of weapon release. (b) Satellite view Select this option for a bird`s eye view looking directly down onto your aircraft. Select again and you`ll get a worm`s eye view looking up from underneath! We do not recommend this second option when sitting on the runway as all you will get is a close-up of the underside of the fuselage. The plan view though is very handy when taxiing around the airfield. We suggest that you zoom out to a reasonable height in order to see ahead of your aircraft. (c) Remote view This option allows you to hop outside and watch your aircraft from a fixed position. The viewpoint is fixed at the position of your aircraft at the moment of selection, and turns to follow your aircraft as you manoeuvre. This gives a superb impression of the true speed of your aircraft and is great fun if you wish to brush up your radio control techniques but it`s very easy to get disorientated or lose sight of yourself altogether..... (d) Drone view "Drones" are the numerous computer-controlled aircraft and ground vehicles moving around the combat area simultaneously to yourself. By repeatedly pressing "drone view select" you may observe their activity and impress your friends. Zoom and track controls are available. You may also switch between allied and enemy drones, aircraft or ground vehicles. (e) Weapon view What better way to approach a target than alongside your weapon? Again zoom and track adjust is available. Just prior to impact, air to ground weapons will switch to a plan view to help assess accuracy of delivery. (f) Spectator view Spectator view isn`t strictly a separate view mode - it`s an extra twist you can apply to any other view mode to achieve cinematic effects. When you select Spectator view, the viewpoint is "frozen" in space wherever it happens to be at that moment (unless it`s already a Spectator view), while the action carries on. For example, you could call up the Tracking view. Move it around ahead of the aircraft and zoom it out, then select Spectator view and watch the aircraft approach and flash past the stationary viewpoint. If you select Spectator view again as the aircraft passes, the view point will be frozen at the aircraft position again, but this time watching it recede into the distance. You can use the track adjust controls to rotate a Spectator view, and once you have set up the camera angle to your liking, return to the cockpit to fly the aircraft back into shot. Selecting "restore Spectator view" will put you back at your chosen spot to watch the effect. If we tried to describe all the tricks you can play with Spectator view, it would rate a substantial chapter on its own. You`ll have to experiment for yourself and use your own imagination. WEAPONS CONVERSION ------------------ When a pilot under training has reached the stage where flying the aircraft to its safe limits does not demand 100% attention, it`s time to start learning how to fight. The RAF call this phase of training Weapons Conversion. There are two very different subjects to cover: ground attack and air combat. In this chapter we`ll also be looking at how to use the Tornado`s radar in both its air and ground modes, and the Radar Warning Receiver. In the process we`ll be considering a variety of tactical and operational problems. AIR-TO-GROUND The Tornado IDS was built to deliver the largest practical load of the cheapest, simplest weapons as accurately as possible regardless of weather and visibility. You may well be surprised at how accurately simple "dumb" bombs can be placed by a smart bombsight. In addition, three special grounds attack weapons are available, two of which are smart. You will need to understand the nature of each weapon, when and why to use it, and how to deliver it. First we`ll look at the list of air to-ground weapons The Weapons 1000 lb. General Purpose Bomb (GPB) A plain and simple unguided bomb, effective against a wide variety of targets. Quite effective against a hardened target provided you can hit it, and the blast and fragments will affect softer targets (most vehicles, aircraft etc) over a fair radius. GP bombs are the cheapest of all major ground-attack munitions, so large stocks are available. They also allow a wide variety of delivery methods, so a good deal of flexibility is available in trading off accuracy against risk. Usually delivered four at a time. 1000 lb. Retarded Bomb (RET) These are 1000 lb. GP bombs fitted with an alternative tail section incorporating a braking parachute. This means that they can be dropped safely from much lower altitudes than Gp bombs, since the aircraft is much further ahead of the bomb by the time it hits the ground (see diagram 10.1). Minimum dropping height for Retarded Bombs is 100 feet (just enough time for the fuse to arm), as against 1000 feet for unretarded GP bombs. Because the retarder hit is a cheap and simple fitting for a cheap and simple bomb, they are usually in good supply. 1000 lb. Laser Guided Bombs (LGB) The original "smart" bomb. This is actually another special kit fitting for a standard bomb carcase, providing a nose assembly containing the laser seeker and control surfaces, and a tail with flip-out cruciform wings giving it the ability to glide further than a standard bomb. LGB are used in conjunction with the launching aircraft`s TIALD system. The navigator slews and zooms his camera view to place the aiming crosshairs on the precise point he wants to hit, which is illuminated by the laser designator in the TIALD system. The seeker in the nose of the LGB "sees" the spot of reflected laser light and tilts the bomb`s nose control surfaces to steer towards it. Phenomenal accuracy is possible - missing the target spot by as much as five feet would be a very poor performance. This degree of accuracy makes laser-guided bombs the ideal weapon against hardened installations or major bridges, which must be hit with extreme precision to cause more than superficial damage. The downside is that the designating aircraft must fly quite slowly at medium-to-high altitude in a fairly straight line for twenty to thirty seconds in order to keep its designator on the target till the bomb hits, and if there is cloud in the way the laser couldnt illuminate the target even if the TIALD operator could see it. Laser guidance kits are not cheap, and therefore not all that plentiful, but on the other hand, few weapons are as efficient and cost-effective; use it properly and every bomb scores a direct hit. BL755 Cluster Bomb Looks like a plain bomb, though less well streamlined is actually a casing for many smaller bombs (submunitions). After dropping, the case splits open at a preset height (set at 150 feet in Tornado) and ejects the submunitions in a dense cloud. If properly delivered, a salvo of four will devastate all but the hardest targets in a "footprint" perhaps 100 feet across by 300 feet long. This is the weapon of choice against groups of vehicles or parked aircraft. Its main drawback is that it must be delivered from about 200 feet for maximum effect (see diagram 10.2) JP,233 Dispensers This is the mother and father of all runway-attack systems, the Tornado version comprising two giant pods weighing a total of nearly five tons! The pods contain two types of submunition: 60 large (56 lb.) SG.357 runway penetrators and 430 small HB.876 "area-denial" mines" both types parachute retarded. As the aircraft overflies the runway, the submunitions are continuously ejected in a stream. When the runway-penetrators reach the surface, a shaped charge punches a small hole right through the concrete and a second charge is then fired into the hole, exploding beneath to crack and "heave" the surface over as wide an area as possible. This type of damage is far more difficult and time- consuming to repair than a simple crater. Meanwhile the smaller mines land softly, discard their parachutes and spring upright, deterring and delaying repair through the deadly danger they present to men and vehicles. JP.233 will make a really impressive mess of any runway if used properly. Its main disadvantage is the fact that the delivering aircraft has to overfly the target at low level holding a straight course for the four seconds needed to dispense the whole load - manoeuvering strews the things all over the place! It is also a Heavy, draggy load for the aircraft, though the pods jettison automatically when empty. ALARM (Air Launched Anti-Radiation Missile) ALARM is probably the most capable and sophisticated missile of its type currently in service (the US Tacit Rainbow project had even more ambitious aims, but died the death of a thousand budget cuts). Like any other anti radiation missile ALARM homes on the transmissions of enemy ground radars (EWR, search, SAM or AAA radars, for example) in order to destroy them, but it is far more resourceful than most ALARM has many different operating modes, some of which are classified but we have implemented two which seem most characteristic and useful. One is a simple Direct mode, allowing ALARM to be used like any other anti radar missile. In the other mode (Indirect) ALARM can be launched at distant suspected targets before you reach them or they see you. When the target is reached, the missile will zoom-climb to a point high above it, shut down its rocket motor (if it`s still burning) and deploy a parachute. It then loiters nose down, descending slowly and scanning the ground beneath. If any hostile radar is switched on, ALARM jettisons the parachute and falls on the target like a guided bomb. Weapon Packages and the Stores Management Display (SMD) Weapons for ground attack are grouped together in "Package". One package contains all the weapons intended for one target, which will be released together as a salvo. You might, for example, load a package of four retarded bombs for a planned attack on airfield installations, and a second package of two BL 755 to attack targets of opportunity. The maximum number of weapons in a single package is four, and all must be of the same type if they werent the bombsight would lose its accuracy because different weapons have different ballistic properties. The content and status of any weapon Packages loaded can be seen on the Stores Management Display (SMD), bottom centre in the rear panel, where each of the top three lines can describe a single package. Suppose that the top line reads: X GPB1000x4 LFT This specifies from left to right the target, if any, for which the package is intended (X). The type of weapon (GPBl 000), the number in the package (x4) and the Delivery Mode selected (LFT). The Delivery Mode specifies whether you intend to use manual or automatic release, a laydown or loft trajectory a laser guided attack. Some weapons, like JP.233, have only one delivery mode available. Others, like GP bombs, offer several options. When you start your attack run and flip the "arm air to ground weapon" switch. the HUD will display different aiming cues according to the delivery mode selected. We will explore the various delivery mode options later, in detail. Packages are created at the Mission Planning stage, either when you plan an attack on a specific target, or when you use the Payload window to create packages to use against Targets of Opportunity. If you planned attacks on two targets (X and Y) in one mission, and then loaded one more package for opportunity targets. When you looked at the SMD the first line would show the package for target X. The second line the package for target Y, and the third line the Target of Opportunity package, with a dash ("-") on the left rather than a letter. The currently selected Package is shown highlighted. When you turn the arming switch on, this is the package that will be used in the attack, and the appropriate line on the SMD will flash continuously. When the package is released the Arm status cancels itself, the HUD resets to its normal nav mode the package disappears from the SMD and the next package is selected and highlighted, ready to be armed. You may override both the assignment of packages and the delivery modes, attacking any target with any package, using any delivery mode suitable for the weapons in the package. Hitting the K key will select and highlight the next package down the list, or skip from the last to the first. Hitting the L key will cycle through the available delivery modes for the currently selected package. You cannot do either of these things when the arming switch is on - if you want to change package or delivery mode you must hit "Cancel Arm" first.