thewood1
Posts: 6529
Joined: 11/27/2005 Status: offline
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Wings of Fury by Robert K Wilcox, Chapter 18, about tangling with two Mig-25s that "beamed" them. "Suddenly, the Foxbats turned ninety degrees and executed a “beam” maneuver, heading west and perpendicular to the Eagles’ line of flight. As it was supposed to, the tactic banished the Foxbats from the four Eagle radars and broke Tollini’s lock." They ended up killing them WVR as they were detected visually within 5 miles. I know this is almost 30 years ago. But looking through some Osprey books on air combat in Yugoslavia, in the MidEast, in Iraq, and in training, beaming/notching was an expected tactic. In fact in the above book, the pilots weren't surprised by the beaming tactic and expected it. I reached out to my old Marine pilot friend and he said in both the Harrier and Hornet, they were trained to immediately beam if they were at any disadvantage in a H2H approach. He said if the pilot is experienced, he can find the "slot". That's what he called it. He also said its not just about dropping lock. He said you have to also maneuver out of the cone of the radar or else the enemy will pick you back up fairly quickly. In older physical scan radars, it could take up to 30 seconds to reacquire. That gives you enough time to get out and gain advantage. One of final comments was that beaming is hard to do. It requires knowing your environment and extensive training. I mentioned the Mig-25 story above and he said that the 25 got the best of the best Iraqi pilots. He would expect they could beam easily, especially if they had ever fought Iranian F-14s. His last comment was that beaming modern radars, aircraft or SAM, is not easy, but can be done under the right circumstances. He didn't mention his definition of modern. He reiterated training and overall environment is critical to whether beaming can be done effectively. He said in a multi-flight engagement, beaming isn't the first maneuver he would choose. If the enemy flights are separated enough, you could be beaming into a worse situation.
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