Combat In The Air

This book provides a detailed discussion of one-on-one dog-fights and multi-fighter team work tactics. Full discussions of fighter aircraft and weapons systems performance are provided along with an explanation of radar intercept tactics and an analysis of the elements involved in the performance of fighter missions.

Get inside the cockpit with Dan Hampton, the military’s most decorated F-16 pilot, in this enhanced e-book edition of Viper Pilot. Exclusive to this edition are 11 video interviews, where Hampton talks candidly about his time as a Wild Weasel and about the fighter jet that kept him alive through so many dangerous skirmishes. In addition, an interactive “first-person” cockpit diagram lets you get deeper into the action, providing a visual companion to the book that leaves you feeling like you’re sitting in the iconic F-16 itself. 151 combat missions 21 hard kills on surface-to-air-missile sites 4 Distinguished Flying Crosses with Valor 1 Purple Heart Sure to rank as one of the greatest aviation memoirs ever written, Viper Pilot is an Air Force legend's thrilling eyewitness account of modern air warfare. From 1986 to 2006, Lt. Col. Dan Hampton was a leading member of the Wild Weasels, the elite Air Force fighter squadrons whose mission is recognized as the most dangerous job in modern air combat. Weasels are the first planes sent into a war zone, flying deep behind enemy lines purposely seeking to draw fire from surface-to-air missiles and artillery. They must skillfully evade being shot down—and then return to destroy the threats, thereby making the skies safe for everyone else to follow. Today these vital missions are more hazardous than direct air-to-air engagement with enemy aircraft. Hampton's record number of strikes on high-value targets make him the most lethal F-16 Wild Weasel pilot in American history. This is his remarkable story. Taught to fly at an early age by his father, Hampton logged twenty years and 608 combat hours in the world's most iconic fighter jet: the F-16 "Fighting Falcon," or "Viper" as its pilots call it. Hampton spearheaded the 2003 invasion of Iraq, leading the first flight of fighters over the border en route to strike Baghdad. In the war that followed, he engaged in a series of brilliantly executed missions that earned him three Distinguished Flying Crosses with Valor; he notably saved a U.S. Marine unit from certain death by taking out the surrounding enemy forces near Nasiriyah. Two years earlier, on 9/11, Hampton's father was inside the Pentagon when it was attacked; with his dad's fate unknown, Hampton was scrambled into American skies and given the unprecedented orders to shoot down any unidentified aircraft. Hampton also flew critical missions in the first Gulf War, served on the Air Combat Command staff during the Kosovo War, and was injured in the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist attack. With manned missions rapidly giving way to remote-controlled UAV drones, Viper Pilot may be the last memoir by a true hero of the skies. Gripping and irreverently humorous, it is an unforgettable look into the closed world of fighter pilots and modern air combat. Please note that due to the large file size of these special features this enhanced e-book may take longer to download then a standard e-book.

Computer flight simulation is one of the fastest growing modern hobbies, with thousands of 'pilots' or 'simmers' going online everyday to pit their flying skills against their computers or opponents from all over the world, in many different scenarios, both current and historical. 'Flight simmers', in terms of interest, can be placed into three categories - general aviation, airliners and combat simulation. The one common theme is the desire to be able to improve their flying skills. This is the definitive guide for flight simmers interested in combat simulation with easily accessible information and colourful illustrations that can be used as a guide to the methods of air combat from World War One to the modern day. Using state of the art digital illustration techniques the book shows how and when to employ the best manoeuvres to beat both the computer and other players. Diagrams show both the manoeuvre itself and the actual methods used on the joystick. Further sections deal with ground attack, mission planning and the historical perspective. It will be relevant to those at an entry level and those who have been in online gaming communities for years and will be ideal for both the expert gamer and the more casual player. Eminent author Steve Thompson wrote one of the original guides to air manoeuvres for flight simmers twenty five years ago, and has now updated his original best selling book to give the flight simmer the complete guide to flight simulation combat manoeuvres in the most modern context. To help bring the book to life the text and diagrams are supported by historical narratives derived from real combat pilots, design histories on key aircraft, and enviable full colour profile artworks.

Dozens of interviews with combat veterans, along with photographs, offer a firsthand look inside the world of the fighter pilot, from the early days of World War II to the present day, describing the realities of battle, the history and characteristics of each pilot's plane, and the thoughts and feelings of aviation warriors. Reprint.

As American and coalition troops fight the first battles of this new century -- from Afghanistan to Yemen to the Philippines to Iraq -- they do so in ways never before seen. Until recently, information war was but one piece of a puzzle, more than a sideshow in war but far less than the sum total of the game. Today, however, we find information war revolutionizing combat, from top to bottom. Gone are the advantages of fortified positions -- nothing is impregnable any longer. Gone is the reason to create an overwhelming mass of troops -- now, troop concentrations merely present easier targets. Instead, stealth, swarming, and "zapping" (precision strikes on individuals or equipment) are the order of the day, based on superior information and lightning-fast decision-making. In many ways, modern warfare is information warfare. Bruce Berkowitz's explanation of how information war revolutionized combat and what it means for our soldiers could not be better timed. As Western forces wage war against terrorists and their supporters, in actions large and small, on several continents, The New Face of War explains how they fight and how they will win or lose. There are four key dynamics to the new warfare: asymmetric threats, in which even the strongest armies may suffer from at least one Achilles' heel; information-technology competition, in which advantages in computers and communications are crucial; the race of decision cycles, in which the first opponent to process and react to information effectively is almost certain to win; and network organization, in which fluid arrays of combat forces can spontaneously organize in multiple ways to fight any given opponent at any time. America's use of networked, elite ground forces, in combination with precision-guided bombing from manned and unmanned flyers, turned Afghanistan from a Soviet graveyard into a lopsided field of American victory. Yet we are not invulnerable, and the same technology that we used in Kuwait in 1991 is now available to anyone with a credit card and access to the Internet. Al Qaeda is adept in the new model of war, and has searched long and hard for weaknesses in our defenses. Will we be able to stay ahead of its thinking? In Iraq, Saddam's army is in no position to defeat its enemies -- but could it defend Baghdad? As the world anxiously considers these and other questions of modern war, Bruce Berkowitz offers many answers and a framework for understanding combat that will never again resemble the days of massive marches on fortress-like positions. The New Face of War is a crucial guidebook for reading the headlines from across our troubled planet.

One of the first analyses of the pure art of planning the aerial dimensions of war. Explores the complicated connection between air superiority and victory in war. Focuses on the use of air forces at the operational level in a theater of war. Presents fascinating historical examples, stressing that the mastery of operational-level strategy can be the key to winning future wars. 20 photos. Bibliography.

Red Flag takes the reader behind the scenes of the biggest, most complex, high-tech military exercise conducted anywhere in the world. The Red Flag exercises, which take place at Nellis Air Force Base just outside of Las Vegas, brings together the U.S. Air Force and aircraft and crews from its allies around the world for two weeks of training that is as intense and demanding as actual combat. Red Flag: Air Combat for the 21st Century offers a complete history and an unprecedented insider’s view of the fully integrated, war-conditions exercise that uses the largest combat range on the planet—the size of Connecticut—and involves every kind of military aircraft and asset, from fighters, tankers, and bombers to helicopters, satellites, and unmanned aircraft. With dynamic photos and firsthand description, the book also gives readers a close-up look at the modern and upgraded version of Red Flag—Joint Red Flag, an all-new exercise integrating live and virtual elements in a seamless campaign that challenges warfighters and tests command and control procedures, processes, and architecture.