¶ Purpose
The crew contract is a mutual support agreement between flight members. A sound mutual support contract should provide the following: position awareness of other flight members, early position awareness of the threat and the attack axis, communication of offensive and defensive information during an engagement, solve decisions before targeting and weapons employment prior to vulnerability period of a sortie, and provide the flight with the best chances of being able to prosecute the attack and disengage safely.
¶ Lead Navigation Limits
A division lead, or section lead operating detached from the division, will adhere to the following maneuvering limits during the cruise portion of flight:
| Minimum Speed | 250kts |
| Maximum Cruise Speed | 350kts or Mach 0.8 |
| Standard Bank Angle | 30° |
| Maximum Bank Angle / Steep Turn | 45° |
| Maximum Maneuvering G | 3G |
Note that these limits exist to ensure ease of rejoin and organized flight, but these limits should not be considered during combat engagements and leads should fly as required to maneuver for safety and advantage over a threat.
¶ Tacform Maneuvering
For general TACFORM procedures reference: CSG-8 TACFORM Procedures.
In general, tacform is performed at Mil power with Gs adjusted to loosely maintain speed.
The target speed of any given maneuver should be roughly 350kts, however for the sake of time if you are deviated from 350kts, you should aim to start the maneuver at whatever speed you are at and roll out at that same speed. If the lead wishes to change the speed of the formation after the maneuver, they should make a directive call after completing the maneuver.
If a member is approaching Min Mach, they should correct with G to maintain minimum speed.
However, at higher altitudes, if it is not possible to maintain at least a 3G constant turn without significantly bleeding speed, AB should be selected, which should be called out by Lead.
During Tacform the following parameters will be used:
| Min Mach | M0.70 |
| Expected Speed | 350kts |
| Expected G | 2.5-3.5G |
| Power Setting | Mil |
Remember, the objective is to never end a maneuver at a low energy state. Deviate as necessary, within reason, to prevent that while maintaining position in the formation.
¶ Tacform Sequencing & Execution
- Lead will call the type of maneuver, the direction, the rollout heading or fix if applicable.
- Lead will call
Goindicating the maneuver should start immediately. - If Lead does not call
Go, the wingman will respond with#and initiate the maneuver. - If the wingman has not acknowledged in 3 seconds, Lead will call
Go, <turn direction>and start the maneuver without wingman’s acknowledgement. - Although TACFORM is done with visual indicators, this is DCS, use your SA page if required.
¶ FENCE-in
Flight leads will endeavour to ensure a FENCE check is accomplished prior to entering hostile airspace or pushing to accomplish mission objectives. These checks can be accomplished at any time prior to entering the expected threat area, but a common point for all flight members to verify these items should be briefed by the flight lead. It is reccommended to accomplish these checks en-route to rendezvous, or en-route to the flight’s designated CAP fix, push point, or decision point, but always before the initial point or release point of stand-off weapons.
It is ultimately the responsibility of the member to verify these checks are accomplished, and not necessarily the flight lead.
The following table can be used as reference to verify all items in the FENCE check are accomplished:
| F | Firepower, Fuel |
| E | Emitters |
| T - TACAN | |
| R - Radar, RALT, Radios | |
| A - ALR/ALQ | |
| I - IFF | |
| L - Lights | |
| N | Navigation |
| C | Chaff / Flare |
| E | ECM |
¶ Crew Resource Management (CRM)
¶ Task Prioritization
Prioritizing both personal and flight tasks in the right order is crucial to ensure the mission’s success, as mis-prioritization can lead to mission-ending consequences. It is important to have a clear understanding of the relative importance of each task, and communicate any conflicts or problems that might arise. All flight members should feel empowered to reject any directive that interferes with critical tasks, by simply saying <Callsign> Unable.
Always remember, if you or your wingman don’t return to the airfield, you have failed your mission regardless of objective completion.
¶ Critical Tasks
Critical tasks are tasks that cannot be ignored without mission-ending consequences. If a non-critical task becomes a higher priority than a critical task, then a mission termination or reset may be appropriate. As a minimum reaction, re-prioritize all critical tasks to the mis-prioritized task when able.
The following tasks, in order of importance, are considered critical tasks:
- Terrain Avoidance (The ground has a Pk of almost 100%)
- Mid-Air avoidance of other flight members
- Mid-Air avoidance of other aircraft
- Maintain positive control of the aircraft
- Monitor and maintain sufficient fuel
- Threat awareness/detection/defense
All other tasks, including mission tasks, are NOT considered critical tasks.
¶ Non-Critical Tasks
¶ Formation Tasks
Formation tasks are tasks of medium priority that involve coordinating and maintaining proper position, coordination, and shared situational awareness (SA) within a flight, with the aim of ensuring smooth and correct execution of all mission tasks following the successful completion of critical tasks. These tasks are important as they contribute to the overall success of the mission by helping to prevent errors and increase coordination between flight members.
Formation tasks, in order of importance, include:
- Maintaining a correct picture or other assigned situation awareness responsibilities
- Maintaining the correct position in a formation
- Responding to ad-hoc information requests from leads
- Completing standard required check-ins such as fuel and weapon status
¶ Mission Tasks
Mission tasks are the lowest priority of tasks and involve executing flight assigned mission objectives, such as patrolling air space or striking a target. Any and all tasks related to the specific execution of an objective in an ATO are considered mission tasks.
For example, these include:
- Targeting with your FLIR
- Executing any step of the BVR timeline
- Managing stores
- Configuring any flight system
¶ Task Sorting
During an operation, flight members need to be aware of their critical, formation, and mission tasks. Critical tasks should be completed first, followed by formation tasks, and then mission tasks. If a flight member has an unsatisfied task, they should check all tasks in that category and ensure that higher priority tasks are completed before the unsatisfied task.
For instance, if a pilot notices they are not deconflicted with another aircraft, they are not fulfilling the critical task of avoiding mid-air collisions. However, before taking action to avoid the collision, they need to make sure their maneuver won’t compromise terrain avoidance and deconfliction with other flight members. After avoiding the collision, they should ensure they have control of the aircraft, enough fuel, and maintain situational awareness before resuming their mission.
After they have ensured their critical tasks are completed, then they can move on to formation tasks or mission tasks if all formation tasks are asserted to be satisfied.
Remember, all critical tasks, and most formation tasks are not completed once, and must be constantly scanned for during a mission. Flight members should be encouraged to maintain constant awareness of terrain, other aircraft nearby, and their fuel levels. Without a constant scan of these critical factors, a pilot will not continue to satisfy their critical tasks.
¶ Effective Communications
¶ Lead Responsibilities
The division/section lead bears the primary responsibility for navigation and radar mechanics. They must rapidly and confidently communicate course changes and identify any new radar contacts.
Additionally, the lead is responsible for creating and maintaining situational awareness for the rest of the division/section.
To establish a predictable rhythm for radio transmissions, leads should aim to make one call every 5-10NM depending on the intercept timeline. This will create intervals of silence on the radio, which wingmen can anticipate and use to transmit their own messages with a low chance of being interrupted.
When operating as a four ship (division), division lead should make their call, and wingmen should wait up to five seconds for the section lead to make any necessary call.
¶ Wingmen Responsibilities
It is important for wingmen to remember that the element lead may not have a complete understanding of the threats in the area. If the lead or AIC does not call out a new track, wingmen should make the appropriate call of the new track to Lead/AIC over the primary frequency in use.
As a general rule, wingmen should limit their radio transmissions and only speak when necessary. When speaking over the radio, wingmen should use concise language and provide clear situational awareness information.
Wingmen should also be proactive in addressing any concerns or any unclear intentions from their flight lead. However, they should limit suggestions and requests to change action before the flight has melded.
¶ Intraflight/MIDS Channels
From Commit, all non-operational conversation will stop.
¶ Primary Frequency/Common Channel
Unless otherwise briefed during the mass briefing under communications procedures the following practices will be adhered to:
All members will report their weapon releases to the primary frequency.
All members will report missile timeout on the primary frequency.
Under degraded or congested operations, only the flight lead should communicate for the flight on the common frequency, with the section lead speaking by exception to amend critical information or unreported contacts from the flight lead.
Flight lead will ‘roll-up’ weapon release information as needed to the common frequency. Wingmen should not report their weapon releases over common frequency in these conditions.
¶ Weapon Employment Radio Calls
¶ A2A Weapon Employment Calls
When employing long range missiles (LRM) or medium range missiles (MRM), all flight members will make the following structured call over the Primary Frequency:
When employing heat seeking missiles, all flight members will make the following structured call over the Primary frequency. Target location is irrelevant as targets can be assumed anchored to the flight member who fired the FOX2.
¶ Visual Sanitization
¶ Look Out Plan
¶ Radar Sanitization
¶ Long Range Search
The default radar sanitization profile for a division is:
Select AIM-7
MODE: RWS
PRF: INTL
AGE: 16s
6B | 140° Azimuth | 80 NM
Cursor at 25 NM
NCTR ON
1LOOK RAID ON
LTWS ON
-1 scans from 0 ft AGL up
-2 scans from 15K ft MSL up
-3 scans from 15K ft MSL up
-4 scans from 0 ft AGL up
¶ Melded Configuration
Select AIM-120
Mode: TWS
PRF: INTL
AGE: 8s
2B | 80° Azimuth | 40 NM
CCR 5 NM ahead of contact, elevation centered on targeted contact
¶ Short Range Search
Select AIM-9
Mode: RWS
PRF: MED
AGE: 8s
4B / 80° Azimuth / 20 NM
CCR @ 10 NM, bracketing target last known altitude
¶ Short Range Radar Mech
¶ Maneuvering to Merge
Within 10NM of a hostile aircraft, an element should split to bracket the hostile fighter. This does not need to be explicitly commanded. Reference the mutual support section for how the element should fight going to the merge.
¶ Intercept
¶ Commit Criteria
Unless otherwise stated in ROE or the ATO, fighters will adhere to the following commit criteria:
- Within 60NM Hot
- Within 40NM Flanking or Beaming
- In defense of friendly targets
- If commit is recommended by AIC and you have zero reservations about committing.
Lead should ensure the section/division is not dragged away from their AOR or CAP track.
¶ Targeting
Unless mission objectives require specific groups be targeted, fighters will prioritize the closest, hottest, fastest, highest group first.
¶ Sorting
Using the above matrix, the following sort plans will be used unless otherwise briefed. Leads should monitor the division’s geometry, and make appropriate communications to direct sorting if adhering to the standard sort plan will place wingmen in unnecessary danger.
If the fighter’s formation has broken down, fighters should sort to their closest/hottest contact and communicate to flight members on your sort.
¶ Mutual Support
When in a section during combat, one fighter should be doing something, and another fighter should be supporting the other fighter in what they’re doing.
| Role Name | |
|---|---|
| Engaged Fighter (EF) | An engaged fighter is the fighter that is in a vulnerable or low SA position, either because they are turning in a WVR fight with an adversary, defending a SAM threat, or prosecuting a ground target. Their primary objective is to survive, with the secondary task of weapons employment. |
| Supporting Fighter (SF) | A supporting fighter is the fighter that is not vulnerable, or in some cases less vulnerable than the EF. Their role becomes maintaining high SA, communicating threats to the EF, maintaining deconfliction and other critical tasks, and maneuvering for a shot of opportunity on an adversary without themselves becoming engaged. |
¶ Roles
¶ Engaged Fighter
A fighter becomes the EF when:
- The adversary appears to be maneuvering against them
- The fighter passes an initial point for a ground attack
- The fighter has MUD from a likely hostile air defense system
- The fighter is the flight lead (default)
The EF has one main objective: Survive. successful weapons employment is a happy bonus, although it may be necessary for survival. In a WVR engagement, the EF should maneuver to ID and kill the adversary in the minimum time. Minimum time includes allowances and caveats that you may end up in a defensive position and need to enter a protracted rate or turn fight to stay alive. Do not throw away energy for an excessively greedy shot if failing that shot will lower your chance of survival.
If you are unable to create quick angles for a kill, the next best thing the EF can do is make the adversary fly predictably for the SF to take their shot of opportunity.
In an air to ground engagement, the EF is engaged as they are the fighter that will:
- Become SA drained as they padlock on their target and perform their weapons employment
- Fly into vulnerable airspace
- Fly near close terrain
In an A2G situation, while the EF should be performing mission tasks of configuring weapons systems and flying to the target, they should still be mentally prepared to stop all mission tasks and respond to SF’s directive calls immediately.
¶ Supporting Fighter
The SF is responsible for maintaining all critical and formation tasks of an element, especially building and maintaining a high level of SA. This will necessitate the SF offsetting themselves from the fight, maintaining necessary deconfliction with all fighters, and entering an observatory role until a shot of opportunity appears. In a WVR engagement, if a fight devolves into a furball it is solely the SF’s responsibility to maintain an altitude and course that keeps them spatially deconflicted.
In an air to ground engagement, the SF should be scanning the ground below and in front of the EF to call out any potential threats and to make directive calls for the EF if that becomes necessary. Just like in A2A, the SF needs to offset themselves from the EF’s flight path and maintain necessary deconfliction so they can clearly see the target area and the EF, in the same sector of their canopy preferably.
¶ Role Switching
¶ Self Switching
Any fighter can initiate a role switch if they feel they meet the conditions of becoming the EF by making the following call:
<Your #>, Engaged
After an engaged call is made, any fighter that has SA of where the engaged fighter is, and what is causing it to be engaged should respond with <#>, Supporting
¶ Other Switching
Any fighter can initiate a role switch if they feel that another member of their flight meets the conditions of becoming the EF by making the call:
<Their #>, <Your #>, You Are Engaged.
The call should also include a very short informative call of what they are engaged by:
| Reason | Call |
|---|---|
| SAM | SAM <System name if you know it> <Bearing> |
| Fighter | Tally <Qty> <Bearing> <Alt> |
The informative call can be followed with a directive call to either a) break away from the threat or b) create altitude deconfliction between element members.
The fighter that is making the other switching call is de facto supporting and no supporting call is needed.
¶ Switching During A2G
Generally speaking, a section has the same target or set of targets in the same geographical area. As the EF becomes the EF when they enter their IP, the SF should call Supporting and maneuver to maintain themselves close to their expected IP while performing SF duties.
Once EF has their weapons off, and has left their vulnerable phase of flight, the EF can establish visual deconfliction with the SF. Once the EF has visual deconfliction with SF, EF can call Supporting to initiate a role switch. Now, the SF becomes the EF and proceeds to initiate their strike.
Note that there are also pre-planned tactics where elements attack as one, and flight path vectors are designed to allow both members to perform the SF role nearly simultaneously.