Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing tcml-3

by Tom Clancy

  Energy In pilot jargon, the sum total of kinetic energy (speed) and potential energy (altitude) that an aircraft or missile has at a given instant. The concept of "energy maneuverability" developed by Colonel John Boyd is a fundamental idea in air-to-air tactics. Turning and other forms of maneuvering quickly use up energy, making an aircraft vulnerable to an enemy with more energy. The faster an aircraft can accelerate, the more quickly it can regain lost energy.

  FAC Forward Air Controller. Designates both the aircraft and the pilot with the dangerous mission of circling over a battlefield to locate targets and direct strike aircraft.

  FADEC Full Authority Digital Engine Control. A computer that monitors jet engine performance and pilot throttle inputs and regulates fuel supply for maximum efficiency.

  Flameout The unintended loss of combustion inside a jet engine, due to a disruption of air flow. This can be extremely serious if the flight crew is unable to restart the affected engine.

  Flap A hinged control surface, usually on the trailing edge of a wing, commonly used to increase lift during takeoff and drag during landing.

  Flare (1) A pyrotechnic device ejected by an aircraft as a countermeasure to heat-seeking missiles. (2) A pitch-up maneuver to bleed off energy, performed during landing, just before touching down.

  FLIR Forward Looking Infrared. An electro-optical device similar to a television camera that "sees" in the infrared spectrum rather than visible light. A FLIR displays an image based on minute temperature variations in its field of view, so that hot engine exhaust ducts, for example, appear as bright spots.

  Fur Ball A confused dogfight involving a large number of aircraft on each side. Derived from the cartoonist's typical representation of fights between cats and dogs.

  G force One G is the force exerted by Earth's gravity on stationary objects at sea level. High-energy maneuvers can subject the aircraft and pilot to as much as 9 Gs. Some advanced missiles can pull as much as 60 Gs in a turn.

  G-suit Aircrew garment with inflatable bladders connected to a pressure-regulating system. During high-G maneuvers the suit compresses the legs and abdomen to prevent pooling of blood in the lower body that might deprive the brain of oxygen, causing "gray-out" or, in extreme cases, GLOC (G-induced loss of consciousness).

  GBU Guided Bomb Unit. General term for a class of precision-guided munitions.

  GHz Gigahertz. A measure of frequency, 1,000,000,000 cycles per second.

  "Glass Cockpit" Design that replaces individual flight gauges and instruments with multi-function electronic display screens. A few mechanical gauges are usually retained for emergency backup.

  Goldwater-Nichols Common name for the Military Reform Act of 1986, which created a series of unified commands cutting across traditional service boundaries and strengthened the power of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

  GPS Global Positioning System. A constellation of twenty-two Navstar satellites in inclined Earth orbits, which continously broadcast navigational signals synchronized by ultra-precise atomic clocks. At least four satellites are usually in transit across the sky visible from any point on Earth outside the polar regions. A specialized computer built into a portable receiver can derive highly accurate position and velocity information by correlating data from three or more satellites. An encoded part of the signal is reserved for military use. A similar, incomplete Russian system is called GLONASS.

  Green Flag A series of realistic Air Force training exercises conducted at Nellis AFB to evaluate doctrine, training, tactics, readiness, and leadership at the squadron and wing level.

  HARM AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile, produced by Texas Instruments. Mach 2+ with 146 lb. blast-fragmentation warhead. Typically fired 35 to 55 miles from target, but maximum range is greater.

  Have Blue Original Lockheed "Skunk Works" prototype for the F-117 Stealth fighter. Considerably smaller than the production aircraft, and still highly classified.

  Have Nap AGM-142 heavy medium range (50 mi./80 km.) standoff air-to-ground missile. Developed by Israeli Rafael Company, and co-produced by Lockheed Martin.

  Have Quick A family of jam-resistant secure airborne radios operating in the UHF band utilizing frequency hopping.

  HEI High Explosive Incendiary. A type of ammunition commonly used with air-to-air guns.

  HOTAS Hands on Throttle and Stick. A cockpit flight control unit that allows the pilot to regulate engine power settings and steering commands with one hand.

  HUD Heads-Up Display. A transparent screen above the cockpit instruments on which critical flight, target, and weapons information is projected so that the pilot need not look down to read gauges and displays during an engagement. Current HUD technology provides wide-angle display of radar and sensor data.

  HVHAA High Value Heavy Airframe Aircraft. Air Force term for a big, slow, vulnerable, and extremely valuable aircraft such as an AWACS or tanker that must be protected at all costs.

  IFF Identification Friend or Foe. A radio-frequency system designed to reduce the risk of shooting down friendly aircraft. An IFF "interrogator" on one aircraft transmits a coded message intended for the IFF "transponder" on an unknown target. If the proper coded reply is received, the target is reported as friendly. If no reply is received, the target is reported as unknown. IFF codes are changed frequently in wartime, but lack of an IFF response is not enough to classify a target as hostile, since the transponder may be inoperative or turned off.

  IIR Imaging Infrared. An electro-optical device similar to a video camera that "sees" small differences in temperature and displays them as levels of contrast or false colors on an operator's display screen.

  IL-76 Candid Russian four-turbofan heavy transport. Maximum takeoff weight of 375,000 lb./170,000 kg. Designed to operate from relatively short, unpaved runways. Exported to many Soviet client states.

  ILS Instrument Landing System. A radio-frequency device installed at some airfields that assists the pilot of a suitably equipped aircraft in landing during conditions of poor visibility.

  INS Inertial Navigation System. A device that determines location and velocity by sensing the acceleration and direction of every movement after the system is initialized or updated at a known point. Conventional INS systems using mechanical gyroscopes are subject to "drift" after hours of continuous operation. Ring-laser gyros sense motion by measuring the frequency shift of laser pulses in two counter-rotating rings, and are much more accurate. The advantage of an INS is that it requires no external transmission to determine location.

  Interdiction Use of airpower to disrupt or prevent the movement of enemy military units and supplies by attacking transportation routes, vehicles, and bridges deep in the enemy's rear.

  IOC Initial Operational Capability. The point in the life cycle of a weapon system when it officially enters service and is considered ready for combat, with all training, spare parts, technical manuals, and software complete. The more complex the system, the greater the chance that the originally scheduled IOC will slip.

  IRBM Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile. A rocket (typically two-stage) designed to deliver a warhead over regional rather than intercontinental distances. This class of weapons was eliminated by treaty and obsolescence from U.S. and Russian strategic forces, but is rapidly proliferating in various world trouble spots, despite international efforts to limit the export of ballistic missile technologies.

  J-3 Operations officer on a joint staff, responsible for assisting the commander in the planning and execution of military operations.

  JCS Joint Chiefs of Staff. The senior U.S. military command level, responsible for advising the President on matters of national defense. The JCS consists of a Chairman, who may be drawn from any service, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.

  JDAM Joint Direct Attack Munition. A general-purpose Mk 83 or Mk 84 bomb or BLU-109 cluster bomb with an inertial guidance package and miniatu
re GPS receiver in a modified tail cone. Initial operational capability originally planned for 1997. Intended for use on Air Force and Navy strike aircraft.

  JFACC Joint Forces Air Component Commander. The officer who has operational control over all air units and air assets assigned to a theater of operations. The JFACC is typically drawn from the service that has the greatest amount of airpower in the area of operations, and reports directly to the theater commander in chief.

  Jink A violent zigzag maneuver intended to confuse enemy tracking or fire-control systems.

  Joy Stick The control stick of a fixed-wing aircraft. Moving the stick forward or back makes the nose pitch up or down. Moving the stick left or right makes the aircraft bank in the corresponding direction. The rudder is separately controlled by foot pedals.

  JP-5 Standard U.S. Air Force jet fuel. A petroleum distillate similar to kerosene.

  JSOW AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon. A 1,000-pound glide bomb with 25-mile range, using INS/GPS guidance, intended to become operational in the late 1990s. The Air Force verson will carry six BLU-108s.

  Joint Stars Joint Surveillance and Targeting Attack Radar System. An Army/Air Force program to deploy about 20 Boeing E-8C aircraft equipped with powerful side-looking synthetic aperture radar to detect moving ground targets at long range. Two E-8A prototypes rushed to Saudi Arabia were very successful in Desert Storm night operations.

  JTF Joint Task Force. A military unit composed of elements of two or more services, commanded by a relatively senior officer. JTFs may be organized for a specific mission, or maintained as semi-permanent organizations, such as the anti-drug JTF-4 based in Florida.

  JTIDS Joint Tactical Information Distribution System. Planned replacement for obsolete existing U.S. and some NATO air, land, and sea high-capacity radio data links. JTIDS operates in the L-band (960-1215 MHz) using frequency-hopping and encryption. Maximum range is 300 to 500 miles. JTIDS allows units with dissimilar computer systems to share sensor, position, weapon, and other data to construct a unified tactical situation display.

  KARI The Iraqi Integrated Air Defense System, combining French and Soviet radars, missiles, fighter aircraft, and command, control, and communications systems. Largely neutralized during the Desert Storm air campaign, it may have been partially rebuilt after the war. Name said to be derived from Irak (french for Iraq) spelled backwards.

  KC-10 Extender Heavy tanker/transport based on Douglas DC-10 wide-body commercial airliner. There are fifty-nine aircraft in service, some modified with drogue refueling hose reel as well as tail boom. Three CF6 turbofan engines. Maximum takeoff weight 590,000 lbs.

  Knot Nautical miles per hour. Often used by U.S. Air Force and Navy to measure aircraft speeds, particularly in the subsonic range. One knot equals one nautical mile per hour.

  LANTIRN Low Altitude Navigation Targeting Infrared for Night. A pair of pods mounted on the F-15E and certain F-16C/D aircraft. The AAQ-13 Navigation Pod combines a forward-looking infrared sensor and a terrain-following radar. The AAQ-14 Targeting Pod combines a forward-looking infrared and laser target designator. Entire System is built by Lockheed Martin and tightly integrated with the aircraft's flight control and weapons delivery software.

  LGB Laser-guided bomb.

  "Loose Deuce" A two-aircraft formation consisting of a lead and a wingman, separated by a relatively large horizontal and vertical distance, but capable of mutual support and communication.

  M-61 Vulcan Six-barreled rotary ("Gatling") 20mm cannon used as standard weapon on U.S. aircraft. Very high rate of fire. Also mounted on Army vehicles and Navy ships for short-range anti-aircraft defense.

  Mach The speed of sound at sea level (760 feet per second). An aircraft's Mach number is dependent on altitude, since sound travels faster in a denser medium. Named for Ernst Mach (1838–1916), Austrian physicist.

  Maverick AGM-65 family of air-to-surface missiles, produced since 1971 by Hughes and Raytheon with a variety of guidance and warhead configurations.

  MFD Multi-Function Display. A small video monitor or flat panel display on an aircraft control panel that allows the operator to display and manipulate different kinds of sensor information, status indications, warnings, and system diagnostic data.

  MiG Russian acronym for the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau, developers of some of the greatest fighter aircraft in history, including the MiG-17 and MiG- 29. Survived the breakup of the Soviet Union, and is actively competing in the global arms market.

  MiG-23 Soviet single-turbojet, single-seat variable geometry fighter. Widely exported in large numbers with many variants. A 23mm cannon and up to six missile rails. First flight in 1967. MiG-27 strike fighter is similar, but radar is replaced with laser rangefinder/designator. NATO reporting name is Flogger. No longer in production.

  MIL-STD-1553 U.S. Military Standard that defines cable specifications, connectors, and data formats for a digital data-bus, or high-speed network for aircraft, naval, or ground-based electronic systems. One of the most successful standards in aviation history.

  MRC Major Regional Contingency. Current Pentagon euphemism for small war or crisis requiring intervention of U.S. military forces as directed by the President.

  MRE Meals, Ready to Eat. Military field rations in individual serving packs. Eaten by Air Force personnel on deployment until regular dining facilities can be constructed. Humorously known as "Meals Rejected by Ethiopians."

  Nautical mile 6,076 feet. Not to be confused with Statute Mile, which is 5,280 feet. The historical reasons for the difference would be tedious to explain.

  NBC Nuclear, Biological, Chemical. General term for weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear bombs or weapons designed to disperse radioactive material, toxic gases, liquids, or powders, and infectious microorganisms or biological toxins. Forbidden by many international treaties that have been widely ignored.

  NORAD North American Air Defense Command. Joint U.S.-Canadian headquarters located inside Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, responsible for air defense of North America. CINCNORAD is also the Commander of U.S. Space Command.

  NRO National Reconnaissance Office. Formerly super-secret intelligence agency established in late 1950s within the Department of Defense, not officially acknowledged to exist until 1990s. Responsible for procurement, operation, and management of various types of reconnaissance satellites. A separate organization, the Central Imagery Office (CIO), is responsible for processing, interpretation, and dissemination of satellite imagery.

  O&M Operations and Maintenance. A major budget category for most military units.

  Optempo Operational Tempo. Subjective measure of the intensity of military operations. In combat high optempo can overwhelm the enemy's ability to respond, at the risk of burning out your own forces. In peacetime a high optempo can adversely affect morale and exhaust budgeted funds.

  Ordnance Weapons, ammunition, or other consumable armament. Frequently misspelled.

  PAA Primary Aircraft Authorized. The number of planes allocated to a unit for the performance of its operational mission. PAA is the basis for budgeting manpower, support equipment, and flying hours. In some cases, a unit may have fewer aircraft because of delivery schedule slippage or accidents. Units may also have more aircraft than their PAA, such as trainers, spare "maintenance floats," or inoperable "hangar queens."

  PAO Public Affairs Officer. Military staff officer responsible for media relations, coordination with civil authorities, VIP escort duties, and similar chores.

  Pave Penny A laser spot tracker pod originally used on Air Force A-10 and A-7 aircraft for delivery of laser-guided bombs. This simple device has no laser target designator, so targets must be designated by another aircraft. Pods from retired A-7s are currently being rebuilt for installation on F-16s.

  Pave Pillar Air Force program for the development of a new generation of modular electronic components for new-generation combat aircraft.

  Pave Tack An early laser-target designator pod developed by Ford Aeronutronic
(now Loral) used on the F-111 and other aircraft.

  Paveway Generic term for laser-guided Mk 80-series bombs.

  PGM Precision-Guided Munition. Commonly called a "smart bomb."

  Pitch Change of an aircraft's attitude relative to its lateral axis (a line drawn from left to right through the center of gravity). Pitch up and the nose rises; pitch down and the nose drops.

  "Pucker Factor" Flight crew anxiety level. Typically related to highly stressful combat situations such as major aircraft system malfunctions while under fire from enemy missiles.

  PVO Protivo-vozdushnoye Ogranicheniye Strany, Russian for anti-air defense. The independent branch of the former Soviet, now Russian, armed forces charged with homeland defense against enemy bombers and ballistic missiles.

  Pylon A structure attached to the wing or fuselage of an aircraft that supports an engine, fuel tank, weapon, or external pod. The pylon itself may be removable, in which case it is attached to a "hard point" that provides a mechanical and electrical interface.

  RAM Radar-Absorbing Material. Metal or metal-oxide particles or fibers embedded in synthetic resin applied as a coating or surface treatment on radar-reflective areas of a vehicle in order to reduce its radar cross section. A particular RAM formulation may be specific to a narrow band of the radar frequency spectrum.

  RC-135V Rivet Joint Program name for electronic reconnaissance aircraft, operated by 55th Wing based at Offut AFB, Nebraska. Used in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

  Red Flag Regularly scheduled (about five per year) combat squadron training exercises held at Nellis AFB, Nevada. Every crew flies ten different missions on a highly instrumented range.

  Red Horse U.S. Air Force engineering units (of squadron/battalion size) equipped and trained for rapid construction or repair of runways and airbase facilities.

  Revetment An area adjacent to a runway or taxiway, surrounded by a protective wall or mound of earth, where aircraft may be dispersed for temporary shelter, refueling or rearming.

  RFMDS Red Flag Measurement and Debrief System. Electronic monitoring and recording system at Nellis AFB used to evaluate performance and tactics of aircraft participating in training exercises.