Red Flag

Did you know that if a pilot survives his first 10 combat missions, his survival chances increase considerably? This was a lesson the USAF learned during Vietnam. In the Korean War the USAF had a kill ratio of10:1 (10 enemy planes shot down for each lost USAF plane).

During Vietnam that ratio dropped to 2:1 and even to 1:1 during heavy actions. Fighter pilots had forgotten the art of ACM (air combat maneouvering). It was not entirely their fault: USAF doctrine stated that they would be fighting against high flying Soviet bombers poised to drop nukes on the American homeland. So pilots were trained to fire missiles in a BVR (=beyond visual range) enviroment. The workhorse of the USAF, Navy and Marines: the F-4 Phantom even had no gun anymore. Instead of shooting bombers out of the sky the pilots found themselves fighting low and dirty with MIG-17's, MiG-19's and MIG-21's.

Furthermore the rules of engagement stated that they could only fire after visual target confirmation, which put them too close to fire a missile, whereas the Mig's still had their canons to fire at the American fighters.

Realizing that pilots had to survive their first 10 combat missions to become proficient (and to increase their survival chances) the USAF decided to simulate those 10 crucial missions in a training enviroment. And thus Red Flag (and its navy counterpart Top Gun) was born. Even today Red Flag excercises are held. The key for these excercises is realism: each mission must reflect how the real mission would look like.

I wonder if the 10 mission rule also counts for simulator pilots: Do we also increase are survival chances after the first 10 Il-2 missions? I believe so. If I get killed nowadays in a mission it is usual because I made a stupid mistake: like ramming an enemy bomber or pulling up to late after dropping my bombs. Perhaps if I flew online I would have to relearn certain things but I feel confident that against the AI I can hold my ground.

I surfed the web and found this Red Flag video, i hope you enjoy it.