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Dissimilar air combat training (DACT) was introduced as a formal part of US air combat training after disappointing aerial combat exchange rates in the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. Traditionally, pilots would undertake air combat training against similar aircraft. For example, pilots of F-8 Crusaders would seldom train against
F-4 Phantom II The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bow ...
s, and almost never against A-4 Skyhawks and never as part of a formal syllabus. From 1965 to 1968, US pilots found themselves over the skies of North Vietnam pitted against the smaller, more nimble subsonic
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 w ...
and the supersonic
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, De ...
. US pilots in USAF
Republic F-105 Thunderchief The Republic F-105 Thunderchief is an American supersonic fighter-bomber that served with the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1984. Capable of Mach 2, it conducted the majority of strike bombing missions during the early years of the Vie ...
s were barely able to exceed parity and pilots in Phantoms and Crusaders were not able to achieve the hugely lopsided win–loss ratio achieved over
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and in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. In fact, Air Combat Maneuvering (ACM) was not practiced by all fighter squadrons for a variety of reasons. The USAF had deemphasized ACM since most air combat doctrine since the late 1950s centered on delivering nuclear weapons over Europe or firing missiles at beyond-visual-range (BVR) at bombers, not daylight dogfighting which was thought to be obsolete in the missile age. The primary US fighter used against North Vietnamese MiGs, the F-4 Phantom, did not even have an internal gun. US pilots were finding themselves hard-pressed to prevail over the nimble
VPAF The Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF, ), formally refers itself as the Air Defence - Air Force (ADAF, ) or the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF, ), is the aerial warfare service branch of Vietnam. It is the successor of the former North Vietnamese ...
MiGs which by late 1966 had grown to be a real threat to US aircraft operating over the North. Even more vexing were rules of engagement (ROE) that did not even permit BVR firing of missiles. Radar-guided
AIM-7 Sparrow The AIM-7 Sparrow (Air Intercept Missile) is an American, medium-range semi-active radar homing air-to-air missile operated by the United States Air Force, United States Navy, and United States Marine Corps, as well as other various air forces ...
s experienced high failure rates, and the short-range Sidewinder was ineffective in many dogfighting maneuvering situations. Phantom training against other Phantoms did not reflect the reality of a target that was smaller, smokeless and more agile. Ever since the success of the
American Volunteer Group The American Volunteer Groups were volunteer air units organized by the United States government to aid the Nationalist government of China against Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The only unit to actually see combat was the 1st AVG, pop ...
(
Flying Tigers The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...
), aerial tacticians have advocated exploiting differences in aircraft to maximize one's own advantages while minimizing the disadvantages of one's own platform, thus neutralizing the superior maneuverability and climbing speed of, for example, a
Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation Positional notation (or place-value notation, or positional numeral system) usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (or ...
compared to the rugged, fast-diving and powerfully armed P-40 Tomahawk. US pilots found themselves the victims of VPAF MiG-21s using Chennault's Flying Tigers "hit and run" tactics against them. The U.S. Air Force began to reinstate DACT in 1966 in Air Defense Command. Its Convair F-106 Delta Dart interceptor squadrons had been tasked with a worldwide mission to send expeditionary forces overseas to conduct air defense operations as necessary. Realizing that they would encounter MiG fighters, not Soviet bombers, in distant hotspots, the Command set about to teach itself dissimilar air combat tactics.
Convair F-102 Delta Dagger The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger was an American interceptor aircraft designed and manufactured by Convair. Built as part of the backbone of the United States Air Force's air defenses in the late 1950s, it entered service in 1956. Its main purpos ...
s and Lockheed F-104 Starfighters functioned as adversary aircraft for the F-106s, and DACT competency became a required portion of an interceptor pilot's training. In 1968, the
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
took a hard look at its air-to-air problems over North Vietnam and tasked Captain
Frank Ault Captain Frank Ault, USN (Ret) (1922 – August 25, 2006) was a United States Naval officer. He is best remembered for the classified study he led in 1968 that led to the creation of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, or TOPGUN. Disturbed over less t ...
to come up with recommendations to improve the situation. His report became known as the
Ault Report The ''Ault Report'', or more formally the ''Air-to-Air Missile System Capability Review'', was a sweeping study of US Navy air-to-air missile performance during the period of 1965 to 1968, conducted by Navy Captain Frank Ault. The study was initiat ...
. It resulted in the establishment of TOPGUN and incorporation of DACT into the syllabus. The United States Navy Fighter Weapons School adopted the nimble subsonic A-4 Skyhawk to simulate subsonic Soviet fighters, while the F-5E Tiger simulated the supersonic MiG-21 fighter. Both the Skyhawk and Tiger were used in the 1986 film ''
Top Gun ''Top Gun'' is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an a ...
''. After aerial combat resumed again in 1972 over North Vietnam the Navy had numerous TOPGUN graduates who were ready to take on the VPAF MiG-17, MiG-19 and MiG-21 pilots that had also been training and were prepared for the resumption of hostilities. The Navy's win/loss exchange ratio soared to over 20:1 before the loss of a
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Phantom brought it back to 12.5:1 by 1973; an unqualified testament to the value of the TOPGUN approach and DACT. The USAF did not improve its exchange ratio at all in the same period and hurriedly began to adopt DACT, even to the point of inviting Navy Crusaders to visit a base in Thailand in 1972 to conduct DACT with the F-4 Phantoms based there. In 1970 the Marine Corps and the Navy found out about Air Defense Command's DACT training program, Operation College Dart, and began to fly practice air-to-air combat missions with F-106 squadrons in the summer of that year.
Tactical Air Command Tactical Air Command (TAC) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. It was a Major Command of the United States Air Force, established on 21 March 1946 and headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. It was inactivated on 1 J ...
finally began to participate in late 1972 when it sent F-4Es to function as adversaries for the F-106s of the 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. In the summer of 1973, the 64th Fighter Weapons Squadron became operational at
Nellis AFB Nellis Air Force Base ("Nellis" colloq.) is a United States Air Force installation in southern Nevada. Nellis hosts air combat exercises such as Exercise Red Flag and close air support exercises such as Green Flag-West flown in " Military Oper ...
with
T-38 T38 or T-38 may refer to: * T38 (classification), a disability sport classification for disability athletics * T.38, a standard for fax over IP * T-38 tank, a Soviet light tank * Allison T38, a turboprop aircraft engine * Northrop T-38 Talon, a U.S ...
s as its "red team" aircraft. The A-4 Skyhawk has since been replaced by the
T-45 Goshawk The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) T-45 Goshawk is a highly modified version of the British BAE Systems Hawk land-based training jet aircraft. Manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) and British Aerospace (now BAE Systems), the T-45 i ...
, a navalized British Hawk trainer.
F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...
s have been used to simulate later generation Soviet fighters such as the
MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (russian: Микоян МиГ-29; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the Mi ...
. The now-retired
F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experi ...
was also used in various paint schemes to simulate
Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...
F-14s, as well as the large
Sukhoi Su-27 The Sukhoi Su-27 (russian: Сухой Су-27; NATO reporting name: Flanker) is a Soviet-origin twin-engine supermaneuverable fighter aircraft designed by Sukhoi. It was intended as a direct competitor for the large US fourth-generation jet ...
. The USAF has reportedly also used captured or purchased Soviet fighters for DACT on occasions.Davies, Red Eagles, p.43.


See also

* Aggressor squadron *
4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron The 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron (4477 TES) was a squadron in the United States Air Force under the claimancy of the Tactical Air Command (TAC). It is currently inactive. The product of Project Constant Peg, the unit was created to expo ...


Notes


References

* Davies, Steve. ''Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs''. New York: Osprey Publishers, 2008. * Fino, Steven A. ''Tiger Check: Automating the US Air Force Fighter Pilot in Air-to-Air Combat, 1950-1980''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017. * Parsons, Dave, and Nelson, Derek. ''Bandits - History of American Adversarial Aircraft''. Motorbooks International, 1993. * {{cite web, last=Rossi , first=J. R. , url=http://www.flyingtigersavg.22web.org/ , title=AVG American Volunteer Group - Flying Tigers * Weaver, Michael E. "Missed Opportunities before Top Gun and Red Flag". ''Air Power History'', Winter 2013, Volume 60, Number 4
pages 18-31
* Wilcox, Robert K. ''Scream of Eagles: The Creation of Top Gun and the U.S. Air Victory in Vietnam''. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1990. Military education and training in the United States Military aviation exercises