One of the best activities that the Air Superiority fan can undertake is a trip to an airshow. The gamer can actually see the actual aircraft displayed and flown and talk to the aircrew that use these planes. One can also use the opportunity to gather new information and updates on things that the gaming fanatic would need to know to create accurate scenarios or to update those data cards. Much has been made of the Harpoon Data Annex in terms of hard information about naval vessels. I don't think people realize what a wealth of information is contained in the Air Superiority Data Card system. It also speaks well for the system in that it is easy to apply real-life knowledge in updating cards to better reflect the true capabilities of today's planes.
About half of the Yankee Air Pirate Air Combat and Pinochle Club managed to attend the Harrisburg Air Show in mid-September of 1991 in an attempt to find hard information for fellow Air Power readers. We did manage to have a great time and we did manage to glean some bits of information that we'd like to share with you.
First of all, we managed to find an F-14B on static display. Yes, an F-14B. The RIO from the 'Bedevilers' explained that this is the official US Navy designation for what the media refers to as the F- 14A+. The Navy sees that designation as some kind of public relations thing designed to get people excited, and has opted for practicality within their fleet.
We then poured over the under-fuselage pallets, which appeared to be the ones for the AIM-54C Phoenix. We were corrected and told that those pallets were for bombs which were recently dropped from this plane on various ranges. Yes, the F-14 community is undergoing training and practice in air-to-ground ordnance delivery! When questioned about the bombsight, the friendly RIO told us that the bombsight had always existed but had never been wired into the system before! From our observation, this appears to be an attempt to sell the Tomcat to Congress and to give it a solid future in the Navy's Carrier Air Wing.
There are strong forces afoot to eliminate the Tomcat and its Phoenix capability from the fleet and go with the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets as the exclusive strike fighter of choice around 19982000. This demonstration of an effective ground attack capability from the Tomcat of today could mean future orders for the Tomcat 21 on the drawing boards. In a military way, arming the F-14 for air-to-ground operations also addresses a critical problem for the modem Carrier Air Wing. Currently, out of the many aircraft on a supercarrier, only 34 planes are capable of conducting air-to ground operations against potential targets. Arming the Tomcats would increase that number to 58 planes. There was another approach to this problem that we discussed with a Prowler EWO/Navigator from the Theodore Roosevelt - a radical change in the make-up of the Carrier Air Wing.
Currently, most Air Wings fly 2 squadrons with 24 Tomcats, 2 squadrons with 24 Hornets, and 1 squadron of 10 Intruders. The new `Roosevelt Air Wing' changes the composition radically. The new wing has 2 squadrons of 20 Tomcats, 2 squadrons of 20 Hornets, and 2 squadrons of 20 Intruders. In doing so, the heavy attack capability of thesupercarrieris effectively doubled. Keep these changes in mind should you wish to create a campaign scenario.
To simulate the new Tomcat capabilities, alter your Tomcat cards to read the following:
- 1. Change the Bomb System to Computed -2.
2. Any references to the F-14A+ should now read F-14B.
3. Load Limit: 14,400.
4. Allowed station loads should be changed to:
- 1,5-IRM, RHM, EP, ARM, DR, TR, BB.
2,4=FT,
3=PP,EP
6,7=RHM,AHM,BB
8,11=RHM
9,10-AHM,BB
5. Add to restrictions: Fuselage stations 6, 7, 9 and 10 can either be loaded out with air-to-air missiles or bombs. No combinations of bombs and missiles can be made.
To finish off US Navy info, we want to pass on the following bits as well: The EA-6Bs are deployed in 5 plane squadrons with 7 aircrews. The Navigator and the two backseat EWOs are all capable of doing each other's job and switch frequently so that everyone understands each other's job and also to prevent boredom. Also, for those who detest that gun on the F/A-18, it evidently is as good or better than the game portrays it. Evidently, just about anyone can make the art of high-deflection shooting look simple with the Hornet, or so the VX-5 guys would have us believe.
The USAF also had some pretty interesting planes on display. Perhaps the most interesting plane with the F-117A 'Black Jet'. We did verify for the readership that this is what the guys who fly and care for these planes refer to it as. The term Nighthawk was very popular, but when they found out that the Army used that name for a Blackhawk variant, that name went South. They half jokingly said that maybe they can get the plane named 'Ninja' instead, which actually would be a good descriptive name of the plane and the types of missions that if flies.
We were afraid to ask any detailed questions, what with about a half dozen USAF MPs surrounding the plane with loaded M-16s and polite cards telling people that they could get shot quite easily. We also did find out that they have a great 'Bad Boys of Baghdad' patch as well. These guys found out that they could have sold quite a few of them at the show had they not given them away to (and I quote) "pretty girls at the hotel". So much for Air Force PR painting these guys as good solid family men!
We also got to talk to an ANG RF-4C crew and get some information. In the mid-70's the planes did add a DDS-A, from our best guess. They also usually fly with nothing more than a big centerline fuel tank on mission. They will occasionally fly with ECM pods when available, but they generally rely on their speed and their escorts to protect them from harm.
A Niagara Falls ANG F1 6ADF also made its appearance and we found that it uses a GE searchlight on the port side. We thought only the Canadians had that kind of ingenuity when it came to interception at night! Use the same rules as for the Canadian F/A-18 presented in Issue 14.
The Pennsylvania ANG also flew a marvelous demonstration with a flight of four A-10s that basically did a wellexecuted attack on Harrisburg International Airport. The attack was highly instructive to the Air Strike player. The four planes came in two widely-dispersed sections and they made sure that as one section egressed the target area, that the other section faced the area to watch for S AMs and AAA. They also did a nice mock attack in trail on a display helicopter as well. It was easy to see how the A-10 scored copter kills in the gulf!
The B-52G also provided some useful info for Air Strike. The BUFF is also a wonderful source of shade on a hot day and so it proved very popular. We tried to get information on the Popeye/Have Nap TV/IR missile, but evidently this missile is not disseminated widely through the B-52 fleet yet. We also noticed an interesting loadout of 24 500 pounders with Snakeye High-Drag fins on the wing stations. The crewman did admit that it was a bit silly to put high drag bombs on a Stratofortress, but they said that if the bombs were dropped without the tail fuses being activated, that the fins would not pop out and that they would fall as regular low drag weapons. We have read this in Flight of the Intruder and have now had it verified. Evidently, a US plane with high drag HE bombs has the choice of dropping them as high or low drag. This decision would have to be made in the A/C decisions phase.
We also saw a Snowbirds display and realized even more now about the Canadian tradition of excellence. No wonder they bashed us flighty Yankees about for so long at Origins.
The RAF was present in the form of a Tornado GR. 1 from XV Squadron and a Nimrod MR.2 from 206 Squadron. The Nimrod should be familiar to Harpoon aficionados as a prime sub-killer. The Nimrod has been winning the Fincastle Trophy for NATO ASW crews for some time now, blowing away the likes of Atlantiques, Orions, and other types of patrol aircraft. After seeing the display, it was easy to see that the Nimrod is a fantastic weapons platform. It's also referred to affectionately as the `world's largest fighter' in virtue of its ability to carry 4 Sidewinders (bad news for Soviet `Bear' and "May' patrol planes in the middle of the Atlantic). This large plane is surprisingly maneuverable as well. They aren't allowed to Barrel Roll it yet at public displays but they are trying to get permission. They did perform a simulated missile break, honking that massive thing around quite smartly while popping off a couple of flares as well for the public. All in all, the Brits have a wonderful plane in the Nimrod, and a much superior plane to the Orion as well, it would seem.
We let `Slick' Kreiser, our resident Tornado expert, grill the five-year RAF pilot and we can say this about the RAF guys overall--they're even more gentlemanly than even we expected -- they're great! I hope our British readers will pass it on to their fellows in the UK that not all Yanks have a bad attitude about the RAF, because there seems to be this conception in the British aircraft enthusiast magazines.
Scott was able to speak enough Tornadoese and we got some interesting info about the Gulf to pass on to you Gulf War scenario designers. Evidently, AAA was a pain, but the Iraqi Crotale batteries in use as airfield defense was highly respected by the Tornado pilots. The Roland was used as well, but evidently the destruction of Roland batteries was given a very high priority by coalition defense suppression planes. We also found that the Tornado F.3 is capable of carrying two Sidewinders on trunked pylons as is the GR.1. However, as a matter of practice, GR. 1 s only carry one Sidewinder on pylons 2 and 4 on operational missions. The Tornado F.3 card should read "4. Weapons stations 2 and 3 may carry two IRMs in addition to other stores."
Also, the F.3 card should read CL = 0-8 Load Points. The standard load is usually 4 AIM-9L, 4 Skyflash, and fuel tanks if necessary. What's interesting is that Scott first noticed that the GR.1 was carrying two huge 2250 liter fuel tanks under stations 2 and 4. These tanks were originally developed for the F.3 to provide the plane with long loiter time and an extended interception range over the North Atlantic. These tanks, known as 'Hindenburgers' by RAF personnel, were used by Tornado GR. 1 s in the Gulf as well. Scott knew that the Stations would be overloaded if these huge tanks were used and we got a confirmation on this. A note should be added to the Tornado cards concerning stations 2 and 4 for the GR.1 and 2 and 3 for the F.3. These stations are capable of being loaded up to 4400 pounds with FT and IRM stores, but the maximum turn rate would be limited to HT. Also, as a matter of practice, RAF GR. 1 s are equipped with a DJM on station 1 (Sky Shadow) and a DDS on station 5 (BOZ-100) on operational missions.
The star of the Harrisburg Air Show was the MiG-29 Fulcrum which appeared in both single-seat Fulcrum A and twin-seat Trainer versions. We'll get on to the display, but we were disappointed that there were no Soviet spokesmen with the planes at the show. We had several questions concerning the Fulcrum for the readership but we didn't even get a chance to get the response that the question is `not interesting' - the standard polite response to questions that they are not allowed to respond to. We'll tell you the rumors, and let you, the reader decide whether you want to experiment with these suppositions in your scenarios.
- 1: World Airpower Review, an excellent new magazine, has claimed that the Soviets have developed the AA-8 Aphid over the years to give it an all-aspect ability much as the US did with the Sidewinder.
2: There is an artist's rendition of a JRV Fulcrum with RPs mounted on stations 2 and 6, which is currently not allowed with the current data card update. It is possible that small RP can be carried on stations 1, 2, 6, and 7.
3: We wanted to know if the AA-11 Archer had been exported to certain countries, namely India. The Indians have been loathe to publish photos with stores mounted on their Fulcrums. If the AA-8B truly exists, it may make this supposition a moot point, as there would be an all-aspect dogfight missile in service already. But, given that the Pakistanis are armed with the AIM-9L, the Indians would likely feel the need to equip their Fulcrums with better IRMs to keep things even in a post-BVR dogfight.
Even though we didn't get to talk, we were treated to 3 mini-displays of the Trainer. Three individuals paid out $10,000 to ride in the Fulcrum and get a sample of its capabilities firsthand. (Maybe Air Power can find money in the budget to send some reporters in the future?) It certainly was an exciting way to get the crowd warmed up in the morning for the afternoon displays. The single-seat show was similar to the Paris and Farnborough displays of the past several years but improved. The square loops and tailslides are still there, but the Fulcrum routine now includes a 'mini-cobra' maneuver in which the Fulcrum is pulling into an estimated 85° AOA for about 2-3 seconds before falling back to the horizontal. It's pretty impressive for a nonFBW plane to be able to demonstrate this capability. We can verify that the Fulcrum is a copious smoker in Military as well. In comparison to the RF-4C display that we saw, the Fulcrum may indeed put the Phantom to shame in this category. The only area in which the Fulcrum is weak in comparison to the F-16 is in the area of 4 and 8-point rolls. The F- 16 does these maneuvers with a knife-like precision and while the MiG is excellent in this category, it appears to be a bit mushy in comparison.
In conclusion, we encourage other Air Power readers to get out to an airshow and share their findings with us. In particular, we're hoping our European readers will do so since the variation is so much greater over there as to what shows up. We hope that this information proves useful and that you had as good a time reading this article as we did in going to the airshow!
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© Copyright 1992 by J.D. Webster
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