IP-18: Unknown Procedures

INTERCEPT PROCEDURES TEXTBOOK

IP-18: UNKNOWN PROCEDURES

Introduction

The fighter will not always have the luxury of being told the bogey's heading at the start of

every intercept. Although modern fighters with a tactical display usually have a selectable

heading read-out for each bogey, effective electronic countermeasures may prevent the system

from determining reliable heading information. Therefore, it is imperative to use procedures for

intercepts that have unknown variables.

Threat Picture with Bullseye Control

Bullseye control allows multiple friendly forces, in different locations, to be able to assess

bogey locations with respect to a universally known reference point, generically known as

Bullseye. Once the location of a Bullseye is established among friendly forces, controllers can

provide contact positions with bearing and range from Bullseye (Bull). In this way, anyone

listening to the common GCI frequency can gain SA concerning the location of bogey, bandit,

hostile, neutral or friendly forces.

Bullseye calls can come in two formats. The first, using cardinal and semi-cardinal headings,

gives a rough estimate of the bogey's position. The second, and more common, is digital

bullseye, which most modern aircraft are able to show on at least one cockpit display. The

following is an example digital bullseye call where Vulcan is the name of the bullseye:

"Gritrock, single group, Vulcan 155, 57, medium, capping."

As shown above, a number of pieces of information may be given during a picture call, to

include: GCI callsign (the one providing the info), the number of groups, the name of the

bullseye point (there may be more than one in a given area of operations), magnetic bearing from

the bullseye point, range from the bullseye point, contact altitude, and any other information

relevant to the group. The GCI information may also be more vague, such as in this example:

"Gritrock, picture, single group, Northeast Bull - 20, medium, heading south."

Before the fighters actually commit on the contacts, the information is called Broadcast

Bullseye--the calls are used to provide general SA to everyone in the immediate area. Once the

fighters commit, the calls are called Tactical Bullseye--they are aimed at providing specific

targeting information to the fighters who will be engaging the targets. Here at VT-86, we focus

on the Tactical Bullseye format.

No matter how general the GCI picture, it should provide enough accuracy for fighters to

point their sensors in the correct piece of sky to gain contact. True correlation comes when the

fighter gains acquisition and gives a contact call with a precise digital bull or BRA call. The

controller can then provide declaration information when they feel the contact has been

sufficiently correlated between fighter and controller. At VT-86, since our radars are not

equipped with digital Bullseye capabilities, fighter contact calls will always be in the BRA

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