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Using Air to Air (A2A) wepons

Use training mission 6 to practice intercepting and destroying air targets.
Only targets in front of your airplane can be tracked by the radar.
See Arming to get more information about given weapon and its range.

Onboard cannon

  • Note that bullets follow ballistic trajectory so the further you are from target you need to aim higher.
  • You must aim ahead so that your bullets reach the same place as the enemy target.
  • You won't be able to destroy any ground target with onboard cannon.

Switching to A2A mode and selecting weapon

  • Make sure that your radar is in Air 2 Air mode - press R key until you see "A" in the lower left corner of the HUD and on the radar.
  • Your onboard radar will automatiacally lock onto first target that will be detected within radar range.
  • You can change radar lock to next target within radar range using T key.
  • When in A2A mode you can press W key to switch between onboard weapons:
    • CAN - onboard cannon
    • AMR - AIM-120 AMRAAM missile - medium range missile
    • SDW - AIM-9L Sidewinder missile - short range missile

Using AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles

  • AIM-120 AMRAAM is all aspect missile - meaning it can lock it's target no matter in which direction target is facing.
  • Fly towards the target so it can be tracked and locked by your onboard radar. You can adjust radar range with Z, X keys.
  • It is convenient to switch with 2 or > keys right MFD to Mode 2: TARGET TRACKING
  • When target can be tracked by the onboard radar, but the target is still outside missile's effective range an open rectangle will be around locked target (note DST 5M on the right MFD):

  • When you are in a nominal fire range for selected weapon target designator will change into full rectangle (note DST 2M on the right MFD):

Using AIM-9L Sidewinder missile

AIM-9L Sidewinder can be shot only at targets showing their rear hemisphere - inability to shoot at target is shown by constantly moving heat seeking sensor marker (diamond). Signal of heat seeking sensor of the missile is feed as audio signal so you can determine how well missile senses the target by the tone - the higher the pitch the better aim at target's rear side.

Shoot when target is in range (target rectangle is full) and heat seeking marker (diamond) is on target and blinking - you will also hear high pitch tone from the missile heat seeking sensor.

AIM-9L Sidewinder Air To Air missile is good at short ranges, are more maneuverable, but has lower fuel amount and lower range.

  • Note that bombers may sometimes still be able to fly even after hit with single Sidewinder missile.