My first flight as an Air Attack pilot

MikeD said:
You asked…..

All I had was 6 colors of dry erase. a canopy to write on, a large tabbed pack of 1:50, 1:100, and a 1:250 maps; 4 radios all going at once…..either in the red with codes or semi-green if HAVE QUICK I/II felt like playing that day. Working both stacked air fires that are all showing up at the same time near bingo, and land arty deconfliction on two close targets, with the FAC next door and all his crap he has on his plate, oh and let’s toss in a notional downed aircrew (SEAD? What SEAD? They’re the ones on the ground shot down) so I can half ass manage an initial CSAR while still ensuring the CAS is continuing uninterrupted and not turning that off and screwing the ground forces, as has happened before in history. All while trying to not get zapped myself by any number of random AAA or SAM systems trying to target me up, seen or unseen.

Freaking kids and your GPS guided munitions, rover video feeds, and sensor points of interest. Below was my “blue force tracker” and enemy order of battle, only as accurate as it could be communicated, and hopefully seen with the Mk1 eyeball…. :)
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haha classic timing, of course that's when they all show up :)

I will say that for all the employments pretty much going the way of sensor aided target acq and IAMs, it is still taught to have the actual charts out, actually plot the things, and actually look outside and be able to at least know where your sensor is looking. At least that is what I was taught, and what I later taught, among other things. When I was a cone in the RAG, we did it all visually (since we didn't have pods, and didn't train to GPS/precision ordnance), generally corrections off a mark or lead's hits, and for the low threat "urban" stuff, we only had our eyeballs and those enormous stabilized binos. Which is to say that I don't think we have let these skills completely atrophy. Probably in part because guns are still pretty well a visual T1/BOT type of scenario for us. But that is a damn complex example of scenario you detail.....luckily we had you guys for that!
 
///AMG said:
haha classic timing, of course that's when they all show up :)

I will say that for all the employments pretty much going the way of sensor aided target acq and IAMs, it is still taught to have the actual charts out, actually plot the things, and actually look outside and be able to at least know where your sensor is looking. At least that is what I was taught, and what I later taught, among other things. When I was a cone in the RAG, we did it all visually (since we didn't have pods, and didn't train to GPS/precision ordnance), generally corrections off a mark or lead's hits, and for the low threat "urban" stuff, we only had our eyeballs and those enormous stabilized binos. Which is to say that I don't think we have let these skills completely atrophy. Probably in part because guns are still pretty well a visual T1/BOT type of scenario for us. But that is a damn complex example of scenario you detail.....luckily we had you guys for that!
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then there was night FACing, training both with and without NVGs, had to be able to do both. Before the time of laser pods and such. Dropping LUU-1/5/6 logs for marking and metrics; or dropping LUU-2 parachute flares, though those tend to highlight the attacking fighters during their runs for gunners. Good times those were. Just had to fight the urge to air score ones own bombs when coming off a dive pass, something that has killed a number of pilots, including one from my squadron long ago.
 
MikeD said:
then there was night FACing, training both with and without NVGs, had to be able to do both. Before the time of laser pods and such. Dropping LUU-1/5/6 logs for marking and metrics; or dropping LUU-2 parachute flares, though those tend to highlight the attacking fighters during their runs for gunners. Good times those were. Just had to fight the urge to air score ones own bombs when coming off a dive pass, something that has killed a number of pilots, including one from my squadron long ago.
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Honestly I miss the idea of marking with illum rockets…

I’ve spent waaaay to many minutes trying to match my invisible laser beam with another invisible laser beam being shot from what is 75-120 degree different angles of approach when you look at it vertically.

Somebody just mark a point on the ground with a fire or a big mass of pink/orange smoke and we can all shift from that!


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BobDDuck said:

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With the way air fire fighting tends to inherit old Military tech, it’ll be amazing for them somewhere in the next decade or so to start being able to grab up U-28s or similar sensor heavy mid size turbo props.

From that vantage point and with the ever increasing availability of ground/air shared data link and video that will be a huge boon to organizing and maintaining lines of effort for them.


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Lawman said:
With the way air fire fighting tends to inherit old Military tech, it’ll be amazing for them somewhere in the next decade or so to start being able to grab up U-28s or similar sensor heavy mid size turbo props.

From that vantage point and with the ever increasing availability of ground/air shared data link and video that will be a huge boon to organizing and maintaining lines of effort for them.


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I think small to midsized drones will provide an evolutionary jump for tech in the fire data arena. When you don't have to worry about radar detection or counter surface to air systems, you can hang a whole lot of sensors on a small vehicle.
 
BobDDuck said:
I think small to midsized drones will provide an evolutionary jump for tech in the fire data arena. When you don't have to worry about radar detection or counter surface to air systems, you can hang a whole lot of sensors on a small vehicle.
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Don't worry, some partisan pro-fire group will form, and they will target the drones negating this advantage......
 
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