Area 88 jet? Nah. That’s a U.S. Navy F-16 from NAWDC at Fallon, used for adversary training. The camo is just 😍

Photo via the amazing point_mugu_skies (IG). Link in comments.

Top Gun

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My First Look at the F-16 Viper

For those familiar with my feed, you’ve seen many references to how tough it is to beat the F-16 Viper (actual name “Fighting Falcon” but no one uses it). She’s a wicked ACM (Air Combat Maneuvers) machine powered by the GE-110 engine and is 1 to 1 thrust-to-weight ratio at half gas, meaning she’ll accelerate like a bat out of hell on demand. She is also rated at 9 G’s, able to pull with 9 times the force of gravity, a punishing experience for any tactical pilot. So; wicked fast, high G, high thrust, and can sustain a NINETEEN degree per second turn rate. And the F-16N version the Navy used had the above performance parameters with a bunch of non-essential equipment (weight) taken out so……Beast.

By contrast, the F-14 Tomcat (A model with the TF-130 engines) has significantly less thrust to weight (.75 to 1 or so at half gas). She’s big, REALLY big, so has a slower roll rate and generally operates at up to 6.5 G’s (wink, wink). She carries 10 TONS of gas so has great range/on station time and can fight for quite a bit of time, so that’s good. The challenge comes with the turn rate, a whopping 11.7 degrees sustained. Knowing that “speed is life, angles are victory”, the turn rate match up here makes it REALLY challenging to beat a Viper. Not impossible, but REALLY difficult and you have to be REALLY good to do it. You might get lucky but don’t bet on it. But in THIS story of seeing a Viper for the first time, my odds are none. Bupkis. Nada. Zero Point D*ck.

The last major flying phase in F-14 training prior to Carrier Qualification (CQ) was Tactics. You’ve got a bunch of hours in the jet and you’re ready to start learning how to employ it versus another airplane in close quarters. I think there were 14 or 15 syllabus hops that started with a good number of 1 versus 1 similar (versus another Tomcat flown by an instructor), then you had your first dissimilar 1v1 against an A-4 Skyhawk (just like in the movies), then you get your first taste of a 5th Generation fighter and get to meet The Viper. The next flights are 1v2, 2v2, 4v2, 4v4 with a mix of various bogies.

Yes, the A-4 will beat you about the head and shoulders for a bit but you can actually do some good work if you maintain your “corner speed” (best turn rate speed of 320 knots and 5 G’s or so) because you could transition to a vertical fight at that speed if you could beat the A-4’s speed down a bit. Naturally, the instructors were there to instruct and not just kick your ass repeatedly so they would “show some leg” or make a mistake to see if you could a) see/identify the mistake and b) know what to do with it. Overall, ACM or dog fighting is a massively difficult physical effort under high G and twisting your body around while talking on the radio or intercom and sweating. It’s also a massively complex 4-dimensional (add “time”) cat and mouse dance that is won with knowledge and experience. But when you’re seeing the Viper for the first time, you have none of the latter. Oh well.

The day comes and we man up to face the vaunted Viper 1v1. These Vipers were flown by the VF-126 Bandits. Great bunch of dudes, REALLY good at what they did. So we meet at the hold short (the spot just before you taxi onto the active runway), exchange a few thumbs up and off we go. The Viper is in the lead and releases his brakes and rockets down the runway. I count to five, release my brakes and lumber after him in full blower. Stick back, weight off wheels, gear up, flaps up, join up and off we go over the water.

Once into our working area we’re ready to do the set ups that we had just briefed. In this case versus the 5thGeneration fighter, the first engagement is going to be a “capabilities demonstration”. He pushes me out to Combat Spread to his left. We’re now flying about three quarters a mile apart at about 18,000 feet and 320 knots. He calls “speed and angels right” (in position) and I call “speed and angels left” (in position) and he says “check right 45.”

The “check right 45” call puts him out my right quarter panel at my 2 o’clock position in front of me. Just stay with me on the geometry, follow along with your hands if you have to!!

His next call is “coming left” and he starts a 45° angle of bank turn toward me on the left, and I mirror his turn. He’s out in front of my nose now and we’re getting closer since I’m inside his turn radius. I switch to guns and sure enough he’s getting closer to my gun symbology. We’re essentially rendezvousing at this point and I approach the 1,200 foot range where’d you’d take your first gun shot.

He's in front of me now. We’re both in this 45° AOB left hand turn. Range is decreasing and my gunsight (“pipper”) is dancing around his airplane. We hit 1,200 feet………and THIS is where the “Fight’s On” call comes. We’re just over 1,000 feet away with “pipper-on” and he’s at his MOST defenseless position possible and NOW he’s going to start the fight.

And in this moment, I see the impossible. The Viper puts on a 9G BAT turn (colloquially defined as “a sharp and sudden change in an aircraft's heading”) and literally disappears over my right shoulder going the opposite direction. What – and I’ll offer my most strenuous version of this question – the f**k. He had just swapped ends in the space of a thousand feet. That’s not aerodynamically possible but I’d just seen it. As I’m processing what’s actually happening, my frog brain from down below sends up a little survival message: “Where’d he go? Where is he now?”

Ah. Right. We’re in a fight and I’m picking my jaw up off the deck of the jet. Immediately tighten up the turn now (didn’t know what else to do) and twist my body hard right and crane my head as far right and back as I can to try and regain sight. Out of the corner of my eye I see him high and right doing some kind of pirouette maneuver stuck in space and just twisting his nose around to put it right on me. Y’all know that cool photo angle looking right down the nose of a Viper? It ain’t that cool in flight, especially when it’s behind you. In a matter of seconds, he calls “guns kill” and we “knock it off.”

After that “capabilities demonstration” (rather capable, eh?) I imagine we did 3 decent abeam sets with “Fight’s On” at the turn in as per usual. I honestly don’t remember them but I’m sure one was a two-circle rate fight to learn about maintaining corner speed, and another was likely a one-circle radius fight to learn about a hard first turn to compress your turn radius. We head back with the Viper in the lead (winner always leads back into the break) and land to debrief. These bogey drivers are REALLY good at the debrief where they can reproduce the most minute detail of each fight on the white board with blue and red dry-erase pens. Any time spent with professional bogey drivers was always a learning experience, despite some hops feeling like a missile sponge.

Much like any endeavor, ya gotta start somewhere. Being a student Fighter Pilot has expected outcomes, but that’s what the training is for. And there’s always someone better than you out there no matter how much you learn. Time and experience in the jet leads to better and better outcomes and eventually you can hold your own versus jets like the Viper. Then on occasion you meet up with someone that’s a natural and…..well……you don’t always get to lead back into the break.

Finally, a F-16N with a sidewinder from the Blackbirds out of Oceana. (Bruce Trombecky).

US Navy F-16N “Aggressor” from Fighter Squadron 45 (VF-45)