Air Combat Maneuvering
Flight Procedures
Bogey reverses
Duke: “Mo, break right, bogey right 5.”
Mo: “Tally, Mo’s engaged.”
Duke: “Roger, Duke’s free, pulling for the shot—Fox-2, bogey in trail.”
Bogey: “Bogey, knock it off.”
Mo: “Mo knock it off.”
Duke: “Duke knock it off.”
Script for a single-switch engagement:
Bogey maneuvers to same perch setup as before
Bogey: “Bogey setting up on Mo on right for call the bogey, single switch.”
Mo: “Mo tally, visual.”
Duke: “Duke tally, visual.”
Bogey: “Bogey’s in.”
Bogey reverses
Duke: “Mo, break right, bogey right 5.”
Mo: “Tally, Mo’s engaged.”
Duke: “Roger, Duke’s free pulling for shot.”
Bogey switches
Duke: “Switch, bogey’s switched; coming to me; right-to-right, Duke will engage south.”
Mo: “Roger, Mo’s free, extending north.”
Duke: “Duke confirms horizontal scissors south.”
Mo: “Mo’s turning in, tally, visual, Fox-2, bogey in trail.”
Bogey: “Bogey, knock it off.”
Mo: “Mo knock it off.”
Duke: “Duke knock it off.”
At this point, the bogey will be on the other side of the section. He will set up again on a high perch and
reinitiate the exercise, but in the opposite direction. This gives both fighters a chance to practice all aspects
of the appropriate communications.
You will have a tendency to not maintain combat spread during this exercise. Do not get so caught up in the
comm that you forget to monitor your airspeed and altitude and make corrections appropriately. You will
also find yourself making inappropriate calls because you are not watching the bogey carefully. If he
reverses left, do not transmit to your wingman that he is reversing right. Here in training it is embarrassing.
In a real combat situation, it could be fatal!
Rear-Quarter Attacks
In a rear-quarter attack, the bogey attacks from behind and between the section. When the bogey attacks
from the rear, the section has to be aware that one of three things can happen. First, when the bogey
engages one of the fighters, he may stay with that fighter throughout the entire engagement. This is a no-
switch attack, and once the engaged fighter is identified, no roles change for either fighter. Second, after
the bogey engages a fighter at some point during the engagement, he disengages from the first fighter and
engages the other. This is a single-switch scenario and forces the fighters to recognize the situation and
change roles once during an engagement. Third, the bogey may switch several times, continuously
disengaging from one fighter and engaging the other when the bogey feels it is to his advantage to do so.
This is a multi-switch scenario, causing any number of role changes between the fighters. Even though the
procedures for each of these scenarios are canned, they represent what can happen in a real 2 v 1
engagement.
No-Switch Scenario
A classic strategy to defeat a bogey attacking from the rear-quarter between the section is to employ the
“counterflow,” where the engaged fighter forces the bogey into a predictable flight path, while the free fighter
maneuvers out-of-plane, going counter to the direction of the fight for a kill.
T-45C Revision 1
Page 44
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