IRANIAN AIM-54A PHOENIX MISSILE

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 14:19:38 -0500, "John Carrier"
wrote:


SNIP

Head-on @ ten miles? Not with these eyes when they were 20/15 and on a
good
day. Of course, the T-38 (and to a very slightly lesser degree, the F-5)
were more difficult still.

We were doing a low level escorted attack on Red Rio range in the
Holloman complex in which I was leading a four-ship of AT-38 "bombers"
onto the tac range with a pair of F-15A's flying outrigger escort for
me. The defenders were a pair of F-5E Aggressors deployed from Nellis.

I visually acquired the pair of F-5s and called them out for the
offensive force at "5 miles"---GCI confirmed the visual, but corrected
my range to 13 miles.

With a radar contact for cueing on the visual search quadrant, visuals
at 10 miles on MiG-21 sized targets are not out of thequestion.

Optimum contrast, maybe a bit of target aspect? Possible. But having
watched a padlocked T-38 disappear into the background at a mile, not
likely.

And, I'll confess to having exactly the same experience. Four years
doing Fighter Lead-In at Holloman gives a lot of opportunity to be
embarrassed.

Was a bit of 1-v-1 over the New Mexico desert and I was doing all
aspect engagements against a "lizard" paint job--dusty tan, brown
camo. I watched him come in at high angle from 10 o'clock and simply
disappear as I watched the airplane at a mile.

Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you.



Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com

Ed Rasimus wrote:

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 20:31:46 -0500, "John Carrier"
wrote:

snip

Maybe some Tom-drivers in this forum will comment, but I've got to
think that in a head-to-head pass with a system lock at ten miles
there is no possible way that the AIM-54 could function.


It's well inside Vmin for a AIM-7E-2 and wouldn't be a viable shot for
an AIM-9J, P, or M.

I think your memory is cloudy. 10NM is nicely within the AIM-7 envelope.
It's also in the heart of the AIM-54 ACM Active mode envelope IIRC.

10NM is just great for a low aspect shot, but head-on is a distinctly
different situation.

As pointed out in my other post, 10nm is closer to Rmax had-on for an AIM-7E-2 at
moderate altitudes and ca. M0.9, not Rmin, which is more like 2nm. I used to
have a videotape off CNN of the F-14/MiG-23 engagement over the Gulf of Sidra in
the mid-80s or so ("I can't get a ****ing tone!"), which I transcribed.
Presumably using the longer ranged AIM-7F or -7M (anyone know which?) instead of
what would have presumably been an AIM-7E-4*, Sparrow shots were taken head-on at
13 and 10nm, firer at Angels 5 snapping up, target at Angels 9, both firer and
target at about 450 kts; presumably the heart of the envelope or close to it.

*According to Friedman differing from the 7E-2 in protection from the AWG-9's
much greater 'spillover' radiation, compared to the F-4's radar.

Guy