BVR Timelines

hello and welcome to learning with lovo today we are covering the topic of timelines and hostile bvr engagements it'll be a long one so maybe pause the video grab a cup of tea and settle in bvr can be a divisive topic in dcs in no small part due to the actual bvr tactics being a closely guarded secret in the real world this is of course appropriate as the defense of this information protects the lives of those who would employ them and they don't get respawns i always try to present only what i can find credible sources for and i want to acknowledge this video by necessity will deviate a little from that standard this video consists of what little i could find in official documents glued together with some of what i and those i fly with on dcs have found to be practical let's crack on i'll cover some fundamental concepts and i encourage those who haven't seen my low no threat intercepts video to watch that first i'll then look at an example engagement then the practical variables and finally i'll stick some in-game examples at the end let's get started vvr means beyond visual range somewhere between five to seven miles in real life depending on your eyesight in-game similar or slightly further depending on your label settings unless you're flying bfm sets with close in air spawns you will be engaging or approaching a target through the bvr realm as i describe the process i'll assume you don't already know where the target is but you do know it is hostile if you do know where it is you can simply ignore these steps if you don't know it is hostile then look at my previous video let's look at some key concepts launch acceptability range or lar the modern radar equipped modules in dcs will compute how it expects your missile will perform if fired at that moment as well as showing you where it calculates the limits of your selected weapon are it will display these to you in a few ways the most common being a dlc or dynamic launch zone shown in the hood rmax using r for range it will show you r max which is the range at which the weapon can reach the target at its current attitude speed and altitude however the missile won't have the energy to deal with any maneuvers a target could make the further inside of our max the target is the more capability the missile will have in its terminal phase rne or range no escape this is the range where your jet thinks the missile has enough energy to reach the target with enough left over to deal with any evasive movers the target may make note this doesn't make your missile undefeatable just very very strong armin this is the minimum effective range of the weapon at ranges closer than this the missile likely won't have time to arm its warhead you should switch to a shorter range weapon to avoid a wasted shot these ranges provide information for you on the projected effectiveness of the missile it's entirely up to you when you fire there are reasons you may want to fire a missile outside of our no escape or even our max it can also act as a guide on what your target may be seeing range wise if you see the bandit is within your range no escape and the bandit is very high aspect then likely it sees you the same way your aspect the way you fly in relation to your target can dramatically change your lars as well as defeating the target's missile or radar there are five modes i'll be referring to hot this is when you're flying directly at the target this will give your missile the most range and the fastest closure rate cranking this is flying to one side of the target almost the max gimbal of your radar it reduces your downrange speed which can slow down fast paced events as well as reducing yours and the bandit's lars if an armax missile was fired at you nose on cranking could be enough to defeat it by increasing the distance it has to fly to get to you notching this is flying to place the bandit or a missile on your three or nine o'clock you won't be able to track the target on radar but you will both force a missile to fly even further than cranking and make it difficult for the notched radar to find you you can maintain this with the help of your rwr and sa page note that notching the bandit will not necessarily notch the missile pumping this is the mirror of cranking flying cold into one side of the target you lose some sa on the target as your radar will be gimbaled but reduce any bandits and missiles closure velocity greatly cold this is flying directly away from the bandit if the target is defending you can build range back up as well as forcing a long-range intercept for missiles though the missile can continue to fly straight so it may not bleed as much speed as a notch or pump would remember to think in three dimensions if you are cranking an incoming missile you can descend in the crank to further increase the lead the missile has to take this will also increase your speed and drag the missile into thicker air after its rocket motor is burnt out both factors that are in your favor also a notch can be performed vertically until you stall or hit the ground missile timeout this is slightly different in active radar homing missiles or fox 3s to semi-active radar homing missiles or fox ones fox 3 missiles take guidance data from the mothership until they are close enough to the target then they activate their own radars and guide themselves to impact there will be a timer usually in the hood that counts down to active and then down to predicted impact you would be able to gimble your radar after a fox 3 has gone active with no ill effect on the missile a fox 3 missile going active is known as going pitbull a fox 3 will look for a target either when it chooses to go active or when you lose luck on your target this means if the missile is within 20 miles or so of the target there is a chance it can still find and guide on it if you break lock this works both ways however a fox 1 needs to read your radar reflection off the target all the way to impact you get a countdown to impact only also i have found fox ones that have stopped guiding due to the mothership losing lock can begin guiding again if a lock is regained shortly after posturing shot a posturing shot is a missile fired with the aim of pushing the target into a defensive posture less so purely with the aim of destroying the target this requires the target to be aware they are being launched on unless you're in an aircraft that does not support track while scan a competent bandit would be presuming they are being fired upon regardless of what their rwr says this is because if you fire from a twizzlock the target will only get nails on their rwr and an active missile warning when the missile goes pit bull this is good for surprising them but less so for posturing them an stt lock fired fox 3 will give them an rwr spike and the same active missile warning as twiz if you fire in this manner and crank the bander is likely to presume there is an incoming missile if you fire a fox 1 which can only be fired from stt they will immediately get a missile launch warning the bandit will only have an approximate idea of the lethality of your missile shot if they are aware of the missiles you could carry as well as your altitude and speed if they believe they are within your r max they will have to defend to some degree or risk flying straight into your missile even a slow missile will kill you if you fly into it the importance of this is that it prevents your target from being able to fly purely offensively towards you the harder they defend the more you swing the balance of tactical advantage in your favor for example a hornet with aim 120s flying against a tomcat with phoenix's has a disadvantage in aircraft and missile performance the f-14 could be firing legitimately dangerous shots at 50 miles while the hornet would have to close to fewer than 25 to 30 miles if the hornet fired outside our max at 40 to 45 miles the shot would be very easy for the tomcat to defeat but unless the tomcat pilot is foolhardy they will still defend to some degree which limits their ability to close in on you with range no escape shots while you are defending the first phoenix first sight first shot first kill this is a concept popularized by the f-22 in its stealth capabilities while we don't have stealth fighters in dcs the concept holds true in building tactical advantage if you find the bandit first you can get a head start in advantageous positioning if you shoot first the bandit has to defend first this means unless they can defend without gambling their radar or their missile has gone active their missile will likely go dumb when they defend allowing you to fly directly at the bandit and set up an even more deadly shot for if or when they turn hot right that's enough about all that let's get on to the meat and gravy bvr timelines a bvr timeline lays out ranges by which you should have completed certain tasks this takes some of the guesswork out of the engagement and forces you to be cautious while building good habits something which beginners commonly lack with both combatants flying straight into each other's missiles it also highlights decision points prompting you to analyze your situation and make better decisions following or understanding timelines will greatly increase your chance of surviving a bvr engagement i want to point out here that there is no perfect timeline it depends on your situation as well as what you're facing and their situation let's take a look at an example timeline and then i have to talk about how it may change the ranges you see here are nlt are no later than ranges let's work through this timeline in a mock engagement bear in mind at any point if you need to you should defend a known missile and can abort and run at any point too should the bandit turn away more than 120 degrees aspect you can go hot to close the gap and get into are no escape range but only if you're confident that they haven't launched a missile you'll then be flying into here we go you're beyond 50 miles and are vectored onto a bandit you turn hot and begin scanning you find the target and commit to an intercept you and your flight keep scanning the area to look out for other threats you are focused on the target as your flight may lose it as they sanitize the area you call target ranges and bandit maneuvers to your flight to maintain their sa at 30 miles you call meld this instructs your flight to stop scanning around and focus on the target for 25 miles you and your flight fire fox 3 missiles and crank to the safest side this slows your closure rate as things will happen quickly from here you have the next five miles to assess the engagement and choose one of two options you can continue employ follow-up shots and press to within visual range or wait for your missile to time out and turn cold these are referred to as banzai and skate respectively the choice here will depend on many factors and if in doubt skate positive signs would be if your target's aspect has decreased significantly indicating they are defending they have dropped off your rwr without being in your rwr blind spots and if you are on timeline negative signs would be if you know you have a missile inbound on you or are spiked with a high aspect target bear in mind a target that has track wars gun capability may only appear as nails on your rwr while still being able to launch on you other negative signs are if you are not on timeline let's first assume you have chosen banzai and come back to skate in a moment you're cranking awaiting your missile going pitbull if you have time and missiles to spare you may choose to launch again at 10 miles out we reach our next nlt timeline point defend this is to deal with any missiles you may not be aware of you defend even if you have no launch warnings you take note of the bearing and altitude of the bandit and then turn to notch the target and dump some countermeasures you will lose lock so set up your radar to immediately pick up the bandit once you turn in again you have three options for when to turn in will you spiked no turn in as soon as you like yes has the spike dropped yes turn in no 10 and after 10 seconds remember you can turn cold at any point get some distance and restart the timeline from that range i mention this because closing beyond 10 to 12 miles or fewer is very dangerous territory at this range an amram will be within r no escape and immediately or quickly go active this means the bandit could kill you even after you've killed them even if you turn cold as soon as you fire if you feel you have the advantage here perhaps the bandit is still in the process of turning hot after defending launch and pump offload aoa and get fast watch the bandit if it launches on you you kill it or it turns cold to defend if it turns cold you can go pure to set up another shot should it defeat your last missile or you can continue cold get more range and then safely re-engage the final point of the timeline is merge which is to close completely with the bandit and go into your best bfm better hope your bfm game is better than theirs and that you know how to fight to your jets advantages if you still have medium range missiles you should avoid this get to range and use them as i've pointed out getting this close to a bandit is very dangerous as they could still have a medium range missile remaining or get lucky with a high aspect gun shot at the merge should you go for this look to my previous video on low no threat intercepts for how to set up an offset with the aim of taking as much of a lead turn into the merge as possible we don't want a fair fight let's get back to the skate option now you fired your missile and cranked you don't feel like it's safe to go banzai so you wait for your missiles to go fully or nearly pit bull if they're fox 3's or completely time out if their fox wands you turn away and fly away from the target now you have to weigh up your options the bandit should be delayed by having to defend from your missile so the range should be increasing do you want to leave the fight unload the aoa on the jet and get fast call for help if you have it do you want to keep the bandit at arm's length maybe you have better bvr weapons maybe they're faster than you and you can't escape anyway at any point you can turn hot and rejoin the timeline at the range you find yourself let's take a brief look now at how a flight would go through the timeline you would be in a loose tactical formation and crank in place no nav turns needed the flight lead would call the timeline points and turns as well as if your bands are your skate all flight members would call their launches as well as timeouts and rwr warnings and if they have to defend and therefore leave formation when flight lead calls meld if the bandit is actually a group he can choose to sort by azimuth or range if they're too close together or altitude if they're stacked on top of each other in an azimuth thought the flight member selects the bandit opposite them in formation in a range sort lead takes the nearest dash 2 the second nearest etcetera in an altitude sort lead takes the highest dash 2 second highest and so on typically leed would take a twiz lock for situational awareness while the flight takes stt finally let's look at how timelines change the ranges scale around your expected are no escape and threats set up for an arno escape of 40 miles you need to have already done the previous steps and you can skate earlier going against the bandit with significantly superior range such as a tomcat with phoenix's or a high-fast jf-17 with st-10s i had defensive steps prior to my launch a 50-mile crank with a possible posturing shot and a 40 mile defend to negate a likely first shot from the bandit i will also ensure i am descending in my crank and notch because as well as defeating the missile at those ranges there's a good chance if i'm low and notching i can defeat their radar for a time this will upset any of the bandits follow-up missiles that haven't gone active and mess up their sa i'll cover more specific missile defenses in a later video if you have the advantage in energy or range you may wish to add a supersonic high twizz fox 3 beyond your arno escape or even our max these have been shown to be effective due to the high speed the missile can maintain at its very high loft altitude leaving very little reaction time for the bandit once the missile goes active providing it hasn't significantly maneuvered since you've fired it also if you have these advantages you can try and keep the engagement beyond the bandit's range but within yours by skating getting beyond the bandit's range then re-engaging though with the reduced maneuverability in the high thin air your first crank should bring you lower and therefore reduce your range there we have it bvr timelines stick around if you want to see some in-game examples let me know what you thought in the comments and share this video if you think anyone may make use of it thanks for watching learning with lover okay here we go let's get set up bypass on hmd on no fuel tanks uh mode 9x's yet so we're repeating 30 fox 3 25 to the side um and the 15 defender for bonsai there is it's hot on me angel's 19 he's a little bit above me how fast i can take some altitude still fast look at me in height all right can i get miss tt i can okay he is cranking need that intercept i want to worry about the missiles he's fired up like that i now get a little bit high let's bring it down zero seven do the burner i think that's about 25. um he is probably fired on me the way he was flying there so i'm gonna escape and i got eight seconds there's this missile um that should kill all their speed that was definitely trashed this one is slowly getting trashed coming out of space thank you hi there's you and i don't want my fuel tanks right now flight control slight control and i want that i'm going to limit this bad boy as well so once again 50 mile posturing shot um 40 mile defend and came in for a 30 mile fox 3. it's 50 miles bucks three cranks still hot on me even though it's probably gonna scrub that muscle you gotta do it because it's a tomcat with phoenix's there's this notch a little bit less up for the turn in he is at 34 000 turn in look [Music] he's cranking on to my left so i'm gonna go right that's the safer side fox three little early around oh i always do this i almost lost a minute right now definitely gonna escape he's turning back in on me 10 seconds okay set up for the turn in he's at 31 000 okay let's probably have time from defend and then [Music] there he is getting stt got him he's cranking right i'm moving around to the left so i'm in l.a i'm real close i'm definitely skating one and zero give me 10 seconds enough time for him to hear about it and then defend what are we at 19 000 manual 19 000 turn in [Music] okay 10 miles this is bad but he is uh not hot on me so let's give him one to think about take that okay he's turning in now 10 and a half have another one and i'm getting the out of there i'm blowing chaff that time he's after me but he's got something to think about soon crashing damaged is 8 000 destroyed

Channel: DCS With Lovo

Views: 12,731

Keywords: DCS, Digital Combat Simulator, Flight, Flight sim, flight simulator, Combat, Game, Tutorial, use, air to air, jet, plane, hornet, tomcat, jeff, F-14, f14, f18, f-18, f-15, f15, f16, f-16, how to, AV-8B, AV8B, A-10, A-10C, A10, A10C, SU-33, SU33, bvr, beyond, visual, range, timelines, tactics, guide

Id: 01AWyGcIxF4

Length: 26min 32sec (1592 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 15 2020