I have heard of the Indian AF using special paint schemes for this. What is it exactly? And if I paint a planbe for it, would it be inaccurate to portray it armed with missiles? Thanks.
Air Combat Maneuvering (ACM). Most aircraft have dummy missiles with real seeker heads. Some will carry an ACMI pod
ACM can be Air Combat Maneuvers (Training) or (Air Chief Marshal (Title.)
A good source of information and photos is located at:
thanks guys
ACM=Air Combat Maneuvering. aka, what Tom Cruise and “Jester” did in the movie Top Gun. It can be training with squadron mates in the same type plane you are flying. More commonly it can be “DACT” or Dissimilar Air Combat Training with some other type aircraft, ie Maverick’s F-14 Tomcat against Jester’s A-4 Skyhawk. It can also be for real with some bad guy where the loser walks or swims home, ie Iceman and Maverick against the Mig-33 or black painted F-5s. [alien]
There is a book titled “Fighter Combat” by Robert L. Shaw published by the Nav al Institute Press. Talk about a mind bender!!! It took me three times to “get it”. If you are interested in the real deal pick it up and give it a try.
Everything from gun fighting to missle performance envelopes…try it out…
ACM training is performed by TOP GUN for the Navy and RED FLAG for the Air Force
True that both places are the “center of excellence” for ACM or BFM (Basic Fighter Maneuvers), but that training is also carried out every day in the fleet/operational air force at the squadron level.
That’s what TOPGUN and the Air Force Weapons School are for - to train instructors that go back to operational squadrons to supervise day-to-day training.
And remember, there is no such thing as “Defensive” BFM [;)]
Exactly. On the USAF side, Fighter Weapons School graduates (or what we call patch wearers) go back to the squadrons and are usually the WIng and Squadron Weapons & Tactics Officers. There’s also a Weapons School course for our HH-60G aircrews at Nellis and a C-130 course at St Joes MO.
Anyway, my understanding is that Air Combat Maneuvering includes both Basic Fighter Maneuvers and Dissimiler Air Combat Training. DACT simply means that at least two different types of aircraft are being used.
Now as far as the original question, I’ve seen where the Indian Air Force (and some others) will paint aircraft dedicated to these roles in highly recognizable (if not obnoxious) paint schemes consisting of polka dots and chevrons.
I think there was even an article in a prior issue of Air Forces Monthly covering this.
That’s an interesting twist on the NSAWC/USAFWS practice of different camoflauge - of coruse, by the time you’re close enough to notice, someone’s probably kill removing [xx(]
The plane i’m building was not dedicated to this. it was and active duty MiG-29. I’ve seen a reference photo of it at a later date with its original camoflage returned.
Actually, the Air Force’s every-two-years air-to-air weapons competition is called William Tell, and the Canadians usually compete too (do they still have it, or am I hopelessly late, like with this thread?). Gunsmoke is the air-to-ground, close air support, and all 'round attack competition.
I got to go to William Tell with an ANG squadron one year, and I was the only media member that year that managed to wangle an F-15 ride. It made me unpopular, I’m sure. But I got paid back with a ruptured eardrum… Anyhow, what sticks with me a lot is how they were just beginning to use F-106’s as drones that year, and they were already shooting up all the F-100s they could find, having destroyed the F-102 drone fleet already. (I know, it’s a noble end for an old soldier, better than the scrap yard’s furnace.) They wre still in their squadron colors (and those interceptor units were colorful up until that time (1990). The tails and outer third of the wings were painted da-glo orange (on both the Huns and the 106’s), and they had heat generators on the wingtips so the sidewinders would tend to score a “hit” without actually blowing up a perfectly good drone. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Anyway, like the Olympics, William Tell has a number of different categories, like best Sidewinder missile shot, or best AMRAAM shot, best guns, best armament loading team. And lots and lots of ACM. They have a large screening room, just like at the mall multiplex, and the competitions are covered by several live film crews flying chase planes, so you can go in the screening room and watch what’s happening over the practice range even as things are getting blown up. Of course, there’s lots of cheering and foot stomping when someone gets a hit blows up the drone. Everyone but me.
TOM
William Tell was held at Tyndall AFB last year (2004). Only F-15’s competed that year, one unit from each command. I can’t remember which unit won. I think, and I could be wrong, that the unit out of Iceland won.
They no longer use inflight shots of the action, only ACMI. Each shooter carries the ACMI pods where the data is displayed in the ACMI room.
That’s really a shame you can’t watch it any more. When I was visiting WT at Tyndal in 1988 – the stone age from a technical standpoint – they used data links as well as the live photography. I think the photography was more of a gimmick, since it was rarely shown from the point of view of the gun cameras, but from two or three stand-off points in the air, and as anyone who has been in a jet during ACM knows, it’s very hard to follow what’s going on if you aren’t the one doing the driving (unless you are an experienced WSO, of course, then it’s your job to know what’s going on, and we don’t have two-seat pure fighters anymore.) But if you’re just a civilian acting as ballast back there, all you can do is hang on and enjoy the ride, or not, depending on your stomach. (My inner ear has always treated me very nicely that way, but it could have just as easily gone the other way. Even combat veteran fighter pilots who have flown for ten years without getting sick will suddenly lose their lunch in their mask during ACM one day for no apparent reason on a normal peacetime training flight. It has nothing to do with one’s machismo.)
TOM
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