In the usual patrol interception operations, it was discovered and intercepted by US F-15 fighters at medium and high altitudes, which was certainly not good news for the MiG aircraft.

With the double disadvantage of flight altitude and missile range, the MiG-29 in this situation cannot effectively counterattack the opponent, and often falls into a passive situation of being attacked in one direction. Today, however, the fighters of the 390th Regiment Group, which are fully equipped to meet the enemy in the south, are not afraid of the enemy's radar irradiation, because they do not intend to fly directly into the airspace over the theater of operations, but continue to fly forward under the command of ground guidance and act as a decoy to confuse the enemy.

Under the unified arrangement of the Soviet ground command center, the low-altitude approach of the fighters of the 390 regiment did catch the American fleet that went out to intercept a little unprepared.

The so-called "caught off guard", for the F-15 with excellent radar performance, why is this?

Because these U.S. Air Force fighters patrolling the sky, several F-15E "Strike Eagles" from the 42nd Squadron of the 15th Fighter Wing, had been preparing for a BVR operation against the high-altitude enemy, and they had no time to pay attention to these low-altitude targets for a while.

Just a minute or two earlier, the pilot's plane and his comrades were separated from each other, and Lieutenant Colonel Fletcher Harris asked Captain Harper Cartel in the back to mobilize radar to search a large area of airspace ahead, and he quickly made a series of deployments to climb to meet the enemy. Judging from the radar display, a large number of MiGs approaching at low altitude (maybe, who knows) are still a hundred kilometers away, in other words, they do not pose any threat for the time being, so the lieutenant colonel decided to concentrate his firepower first and deal with another wave of targets coming from an altitude of about six kilometers.

Analyze the radar echo intensity. The model identification given by the fire control system is "Flanker". This made the lieutenant colonel feel a little more excited in addition to the surprise: the Su-27 "Flanker". This kind of heavy fighters that the Russians have always cherished and will not rush out in large numbers to participate in the battle, this time there are as many as eight at once, and seeing that this posture is obviously coming for their 42 squadron, could it be that the Ivan want to have an air superiority duel of heavy aircraft?

Ha ha!

If that's the case, it couldn't be better.

Flying heavy fighters in the Caucasus, Lieutenant Colonel Harris knew that the Flanker was not an easy opponent to deal with, and that he was no worse than the Strike Eagle in visual air combat, especially the damned "Fighter Butcher" - but then again. No one has a rule that you have to destroy an enemy in a fight, right?

In the face of large Russian fighters with obvious echoes in the sky, it is really abnormal for the F-15E with the "Slammer" mounted to solve the battle at a long distance if it does not take advantage of the great advantage of BVR confrontation.

In the face of an oncoming group of Russian fighters, Harris's engagement strategy was simple and straightforward.

Relying on the AN/APG-70 flat-panel slit antenna radar on board the F-15E Strike Eagle, the pilots of the 42nd Squadron were able to lock on to Sukhoi fighters flying at an altitude of 6,000 meters and against a clean sky background at a distance of 100 kilometers.

In the cockpit of the "Attack Eagle", he saw that the Captain Cartel, who was in the back seat, had switched his radar to TWS mode, and noticed that the Russians were speeding forward, as if they were preparing to launch an over-the-horizon attack. The lieutenant colonel called his teammates on the radio to distract from the left and right, but remembered a secret message he had received before the regular mission meeting this morning.

Reminder of this information sent in a hurry from above. The pilots of the 42 Squadron of the 15th Wing have already seen it.

In a crude and scribbled cable, the intelligence service claimed that "the possibility of the Russians using a new type of missile, believed to be an active radar-guided missile, is generally very small, but it cannot be completely ruled out."

I remember that at that time, after reading a few pieces of paper in a hurry, I also exchanged opinions with my colleagues who had breakfast together, and felt that as the secret telegram said, the possibility of the emergence of "new Russian missiles" was not very likely; But now, after discovering that the Russians began to accelerate at such a long distance, intending to provide a higher initial velocity for the missile, and the range of the AA-10 "Poplar" missile could not be so far, the lieutenant colonel was still a little vigilant, could it be that the Ivan really had some new missiles?

With a kind of worry about the new weapons, the lieutenant colonel knew that everyone in the fleet had seen the secret message and had no concerns about secrecy, so he reminded the planes in the channel to pay attention to the RWR warning - no matter what new weapons the Russians have, they can only use radar irradiation to provide guidance at such a distance, so as long as they pay attention to the Russians' airborne radar irradiation, they don't have to worry about being attacked.

After arranging the target, we can see that the target on the radar is approaching within 80 kilometers, and the altitude difference is about 1,000 meters, and it will soon meet the conditions for the "Slammer" to intercept it head-on; The two-way chain between the tong guò and the "torch" confirmed that the surrounding air was safe, and Harris decisively gave the order in the channel:

"Attention to each machine, the target has been automatically assigned by the guò system, ready to 'Slammer', and the first round of BVR attacks is expected to be carried out in thirty seconds, and repeat, the target is automatically assigned, and the first round of BVR attacks is carried out in thirty seconds."

As the call was issued, and the responses of his subordinates were heard one by one, the lieutenant colonel himself easily connected the pre-power of the two "Slammer" missiles, and at the same time laid out the engagement strategy after the first round of missile salvos on the radio in a calm tone.

Although after the wing arrived in Turkey, everyone had been carrying out lackluster low-altitude cover missions, but it did not mean that the 42nd Squadron had become unfamiliar with the traditional air superiority combat tactics, and Lieutenant Colonel Harris quickly chose the standard roundabout tactics of advancing to a distance of 50 kilometers and then deploying, ordering the "Postman" 6 and 10 to turn to the left after the first round of BVR attacks, and the rest of the fighters to turn to the right with himself, and carry out a high-speed approaching plunder attack while the Russian fighters were busy avoiding missiles and taking care of themselves.

"All_clear (it's all clear)? Be careful to conserve firepower, only one 'Slime' is assigned to each target, over. ”

"'Postal_Six' received! Complete. ”

"'Postal_Two' received, save fire, over."

“……”

Thinking of the extraordinary situation of the enemy in the air today, and the frightening number of Russian fighters in the northern sky, the lieutenant colonel also fully took this into account when deploying, and he did not want to report "Insufficient Ammo" with apology when the command center ordered the squadron to turn to the enemy. At this moment, seeing that the target on the radar was approaching a distance of less than 70 kilometers and the speed had increased to Mach 12, the sharp sound of the radar warning made Harris guess that the opponent was firing radar-guided missiles, so he prepared to order all the personnel to lock on to the target and carry out the first round of missile salvo.

However, at this moment, the finger was pressed on the missile launch button and waiting for the calculation of the fire control system, and after a few seconds, the lieutenant colonel did not see any change on the heads-up display, only heard Harper Cartel remind him in the back: "Boss, the target is temporarily out of tracking - oh, I think they are turning sideways, I am switching to radar VS mode!" ”

"What? Are you sure ......"

Looking at the multi-function display in front of him as he spoke, the lieutenant colonel immediately understood what was going on with the target flashing on the radar, and his captain's partner was right, this phenomenon of briefly escaping radar tracking was very common in combat. And while he was nervously paying attention to the target, Harris also noticed the change in the sound of the RWR warning - as expected, the "Didi" sound of the alarm had disappeared at this time, because the Russian fighter plane, which was turning sideways and using the 39th parallel, was naturally impossible to illuminate with radar.

These abominable Ivans, did they perceive any signs?

Seeing that the target was hidden on the radar, the situation was clear and more than that, and when the weapon operator switched the radar working mode and re-screened the targets in the sky one by one, Lieutenant Colonel Harris was surprised to find that the speed markers of the Russian fighters had turned negative, and these guys were not just entering the sideways, they were already turning around and flying back!

Just now, he accelerated forward, posing as if he was about to launch a missile, but now he turned around and ran away en masse; At a distance of tens of kilometers away, over-the-horizon missiles without radar irradiation guidance can only miss the target.

Is it the fear of avoiding war, this possibility is almost zero, then - is it really an active radar-guided missile, the Russians have already come up with this kind of weapon?

Thinking of this layer at once, although the lieutenant colonel is still very skeptical, he also feels that it is necessary to take precautions, but for the US military pilots who have used the AIM-120B many times and are already very familiar with the characteristics of active radar-guided missiles, Harris immediately thought that this speculation is flawed: even the so-called "launch and forget" active radar-guided missiles need to be "taken care of" by the carrier aircraft for a period of time, and the missiles can only fly straight all the way if they do not get the mid-course correction instructions of the carrier aircraft, so that is to say, Even if the Russians mount what type of active projectiles, they probably haven't figured out how to use them?

This kind of thinking seems to be very funny on the battlefield of life and death, but the lieutenant colonel pouted his lips quite contemptuously, he felt that this was very likely to be the truth.

However, even so, combined with the previous changes in the flight speed of Russian fighters, it is very likely that there are active radar-guided missiles in the sky ahead, and the self-homing head will start searching when it approaches a certain range, and the lieutenant colonel immediately ordered all planes to stop firing "Slammer" missiles, and led the fighters of the 42nd Squadron into the steering evasion, while continuing to maintain radar tracking of the target. (To be continued......)