The Deadly Tomcat

[Zombie]

Hi, I am new to Lomac (I only have the first pach for Lomac) and I must say that this is a great sim.

 

But I need help with the F14 Tomcat. When I am up against one I get my tail-end handed to me on a platter! Sometimes I can dodge up to four missiles (This happens rarely.), but usualy only two before the verdomde thing blows me out of the sky. I must ad that I play on full realism; with awacs, external views and padlock on. Eh, so maybe not full realism (I usualy fly the Mig29C but I also love the F15C.).

 

So I would appreciate advice on how to combat a fully armed Tomcat. And if you want to sugest that I should eject, don't bother because I am highly experienced in doing that!

[britgliderpilot]

To be honest, there really isn't much you can do. The Tomcat easily outreaches any flyable aircraft and weapon combination . . . . . you really are limited to dodging the missiles and killing it while you're within it's reach.

 

If you're in the MiG29, then you need to get very good at working out where the enemy is from your RWR. Dodge the missile, lock the Tomcat, fire, F-Pole. You'll probably have to dodge another Phoenix before your missile hits . . . . . which either means you have to start again, or break lock and very quickly reacquire after dodging that one.

 

Have you seen Ironhand's BVR tutorials for the Su27?

Should help you greatly in understanding some of the necessary tactics.

[D-Scythe]

There are some things you can do to even the odds a bit. For one, when the Tomcat first launches at you, quickly dive down into the weeds. All missiles in Lock On have a much shorter range at low altitude, and this is *proportional*. For example, at 25 000ft, the AIM-54 might have a range of 60 nm, while your R-77s 25 nm. That's a difference of 35 nm - a lot of time for the Tomcat to pop off AIM-54s before you can fire back. Now take a low altitude situation: the range of the Phoenix might be reduced to 25 nm, and the range of your R-77s might go down to 12. That's only a difference of 13 nm.

 

Furthermore, the AIM-54/R-37 type missiles are horrible at top attack. If you can get the Tomcat to launch its missiles 10 000ft above you (not that hard - start the engagement high and dive down low prior to launch), and provided you keep closure rate high, you're almost gauranteed to fly under the missiles lofting 'arc' before it can pitch its nose down fast enough to engage you.

 

Of course, low altitude is not always an option. If that is the case, my only advice would be to A, launch a single R-77 at max range to keep the Tomcat defensive, and B, get really good at missile evasion.

[Guest ruggbutt]

Not sure if you can do it in 1.1, but LOC can lock up incoming missiles w/helmet mode and shoot them down. He was doing this w/the Tomcat and AIM54's.

[SUBS17]

You can also try the good ol team tactics. If you're flying in a pair online, use your wingman as bait while you fly low level in a mountainous region. Your wingman turns his radar on and loops back and forth keeping their attention while you sneak up on him from 6 o'clock at low level and use EOS without radar. If hes got AWACS you're gonna lose as he'll know where you are either way unless you use more than 2 people and somehow get somone to slip past and nail the AWACs.

[S77th-Dante]

phoenix missiles don't maneuver to good. Split S break turns & barrel rolls.

 

they are also a pretty smokey missile so much fun watching them zip past you.

[Omega Oska]

As the AIM-54 close in, the RWR shows a steadily increasing signal power, barrel roll around its axis ~5 secs before it reaches full power. Works almost every time. But to add more realism, I prefer doing the F-pole+beaming approach. But the idea is the same, use the RWR to estimate the time of impact.

[bSr.LCsta]

IM w/ Omega and Dante, f-pole and Split-S are the most reliable.

Because the are highly visible you might get lucky and lock up an inbound missile w/ Helmet mode, but I wouldnt recommend it.

I might make a little BVR movie.......sound interesting?

If the F-Pole is done right you can maintain lock through the entire engagement, unless he breaks defensive, then switch to eos and give him and ET/T.

Split S probably has a higher success rate of evading the missile but it puts the enemy to your back.

 

btw, you cant hide from AI, they know all. ;)