Flight Procedures
Air Combat Maneuvering
FLIGHT PROCEDURES
OFFENSIVE
The name of the game in ACM is to kill the bogey. Every action you take should be based on that
premise. While being aggressive is mandatory, remember that speed is life. Being so aggressive that you
fail to properly manage your energy package will quickly force you from being the aggressor to the victim.
BACKGROUND
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In a real ACM environment you cannot
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predict where you will find yourself at the
beginning of a 1 v 1 engagement—
offensive, defensive, or neutral.
Regardless, your goal is to become
offensive and stay offensive.
Understanding what it takes to be
successful means to understand what
adjustments to make to totally control the
engagement. All the offensive maneuvers
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will be viewed from your perspective as the
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attacker. Even though the procedures for
the maneuvers sound canned, they are only
a means to an end. As we discuss the
procedures for each maneuver, remember
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that when you employ one maneuver, the
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bogey will react, which leads you to execute
a follow-on maneuver, all of which will get
you to the point where you really want to
be—at the bogey’s six o’clock where you
can employ your weapons.
1. Combat Spread
SNAP GUNS EXERCISE
2. Snap Guns
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The TacForm gunsight tracking exercise
3. Combat Spread
provided you the opportunity to saddle up
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4. Snap Guns
and hold the pipper on a mildly-
maneuvering bogey. If the bogey knows
5. Combat Spread
you are there, you will rarely get a steady
state tracking solution on an experienced
bogey. Therefore, your only real opportunity
for a kill in-close may be with a snap guns
1
1
shot. This exercise, depicted in Figure 7,
familiarizes you with the snap guns
envelope and the difficulty in achieving it
against a maneuvering bogey.
Figure 7: SNAP GUNS EXERCISE
The bogey initiates the exercise from
combat spread by transmitting, “In as the target,” and rolls into you using a 45-60 degree AOB turn. You
then transmit, “In as the shooter,” and immediately execute a hard turn into the bogey.
As the bogey reaches your 10/2 o’clock, reverse your turn and attempt to reach a snap guns solution
between 60 and 90 degrees AOT. As you approach the range for a shot, the bogey will execute a
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