Have you ever imagined what it's like to be in the cockpit of a fighter jet during a close-range aerial combat, the famous Dogfight? A viral video from the US Air Force (USAF) shows just that.
The images were recorded in the back seat of an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter-bomber, during dogfight training. The video was recorded by videographer William Lewis from the USAF and went viral after being published on TikTok and Instagram by the profile @combat_aviationist.
@combat_aviationist Strike Eagle vs Strike Eagle
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"One of the best 3k defensive videos I've ever seen", said Trevor Aldridge, a former Air Force pilot who primarily flew the F-15C Eagles but also flies the agile F-16s with the Thunderbirds, the USAF's premier aerial demonstration team.
By “3k,” Aldridge was referring to one of the three types of close combat that Air Force pilots learn in basic fighter maneuvers, the ABCs of air-to-air combat. “3k” means that opposing planes start combat 3.000 feet apart, while the other basic engagements, 6k and 9k, start 6.000 and 9.000 feet apart.
“Anything beyond that really turns into high aspect [basic flying maneuvers], which we also practice,” said Aldridge. “It's all the building blocks to be ready for whatever type of struggle you find yourself in.”
Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM) teach more than just maneuvers: they also teach the crew how to feel the aircraft. As can be seen in the video, when the opponent is within visual range, crew spend a lot of time looking out and tracking the opponent.
This requires a skill set of its own, because pilots need to feel what's going on with their plane without wasting time looking at their instruments in the cockpit.
“I want to maximize the performance of the Eagle through feel and noise without having to look into the cabin,” said Drew Armey, another F-15C pilot. "Not looking into the instruments, that's a skill versus instrument flying when you have your eyes in."
Keeping an eye on your enemy is just the beginning: sometimes to survive an air-to-air battle, you almost have to read your opponent's mind. TikTok shows an F-15 approaching from behind the aircraft, close enough that the approaching pilot can use his weapons on the defending aircraft.
However, shooting a fighter aircraft from another fighter is tricky business. If the pilot does not compensate the target enough, he will miss. This is called a "lead". The pilot must aim ahead of the enemy plane, to compensate for the displacement of the aircraft and the cannon ammunition.
This can be seen in this other video, with an F-16.
That fact gives the defending pilot another set of decisions to make, Armey explained. If the enemy's nose is pointing straight at the defending jet, it could mean he has no shots, because attacking pilots need to "lead" their targets. However, it could also mean that the enemy wants the defending aircraft to move away so he can gain an advantage over his target.
The attacking pilot must make similar calculations: if he closes in on the enemy, the pilot is more likely to hit the enemy with the cannon, but the pilot is also at greater risk of out-maneuvering the defender, becoming the attacker.
“There is some ability to show the defender this scenario where they want to maneuver their jet and into their crosshairs.”, said Armey. “This is the ultimate in performance.”
Making those judgments and making decisions is a skill that BFM exercises like the ones shown in this TikTok are meant to help fighter pilots hone. But the specifics of what's going on in this particular video are a little harder to pin down, especially since the video appears to show a compilation of various combats.
The first match looks like a 6k BFM engagement turned into a 3k, or the beginning of a 3k, Aldridge said. The Strike Eagle with the camera probably started on the defensive, with the other aircraft starting at the tail and staying there, he added.
As the chase continues, the video shows smoke billowing from the leading aircraft's wing. Those are the flares Eagle is launching to stop the adversary from launching heat-guided missiles, Aldridge explained. But the flares cannot stop the gun from firing, which is why the defending aircraft has to turn and turn to prevent the attacking aircraft from getting a shot solution.
“In the second fight, it looks like he initially makes a turn before going down”, said Aldridge. “This is a standard 6k defensive plan, break until the bad guy proves he can outrun you, then change the game plan and in this case go downhill.” Tactics change based on how close a pilot is to their opponent.
“In a farther fight, I can keep them very far away, keep them out of cannon ammo range,” Armey said. “If an enemy is close to me, my ability to evade is very low, but if they are being aggressive and make a mistake, I can cause that approach to make them overtake.”
TikTok shows this approach followed by overtaking at about 27 seconds after the first jet cuts across the attacking fighter's path. “You see the defender pulling the attacker, who shoots past, he is the one causing the approach”, Armey said.
Still, another pilot with 1.400 hours of experience flying the F-15 said TikTok was less about teaching tactics and more about looking cool. “Haha, very funny”, said the pilot, when asked if the video was meant to show defensive maneuvers by the Strike Eagle. The pilot spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“Illustrating defensive maneuvers in a Strike is like illustrating fuel efficiency in an Abrams tank,” said the pilot. "Then no. It's just to look cool. Strike Eagles are pigs in the visual arena.”
“The video looks quite staged,” said the pilot. “The enemy in the video settles into a firing position for several seconds at a time, meaning the defender would be dead multiple times by the end of the video.”
Armey wasn't so sure: he couldn't look close enough to see if the attacker had hit the defender. However, he knew for sure that it was a really cool video and more accurately depicts air-to-air combat than the 1986 film Top Gun.
“I love that movie, but they are flying so close to each other, it's basically a formation flight,” Armey said. “I understand that from a cinematic perspective, because it's hard to capture what's going on when the fighters are 6.000 feet away from each other, and even that is close.”
Part of what makes TikTok stand out is the unusual camera angle looking behind the aircraft as the fight continues. Most debriefs use forward-facing footage of the jet, Armey explained, so this TikTok offers a new take on how to break up a firefight.
"This is real footage of how they're fighting, so it's much more representative in that sense," compared to Top Gun, he said.
Another feature of TikTok that Hollywood might not show is the tail of the aircraft shaking with the force of the maneuvers. The oscillating vertical stabilizer caught the eye of commentators on TikTok who worried it was about to break, but it's normal for a hunting tail to shake like that.
“The vertical stabilizer on both Eagle models vibrates a lot under high angle of attack”, said the anonymous pilot.
@combat_aviationist F-15E Strike Eagle
Angle of attack is difficult to explain, but the key concept is to keep an aircraft's wings below a certain angle to the wind to ensure that the wings continue to produce lift, without which the aircraft will stall (lose lift). ). The Eagle is shaped in such a way that the fuselage itself generates an enormous amount of lift, the pilot said, which leads to air vortices and turbulence directly over and behind the jet.
Shaking is also normal in other aircraft, even in civil planes. Armey flew F-16 fighters before switching to F-15s, and he recalled watching the missiles under his wing. "swinging up and down in the wind". Air resistance is part of the reason fighter jets aren't built with super-rigid materials that can break under such force, Armey explained.
As fun as watching the video is, social media reminds us that it can always be better.
“Waiting for pilot to eject with rocket launcher in hand”, wrote one Reddit , referring to a legendary Battlefield game trick.
