Pete Bonanni - The Art of the Kill

Time: 0+21

1000 Hz launch tone

Handley: “Launch.”

Smallwood: “Launch.”

Handley: “OK, we’ve got a launch light… Brenda, let’s turn into it…”

Time: 0+30

"Fletch, this is Bing. You have a possible bandit 058 Bull’s-eye 15.”

Time: 0+35

Handley: “Brenda, pods on.”

Handley: “I don’t see that fucker.”

Smallwood: “I don’t either.”

Downey: “Brenda, 3’s going to turn eastbound… I lost you in that break.”

Handley: “OK, Brenda, let’s reverse course back to east.”

Pod — ECM pod.

Time: 0+57

Tea Ball: “[garble]… Bull’s-eye… 060, 20 nautical.”

Red Crown: “Brenda, Worm… Bandit will be on your 167 at 8… possible 167 at 8.”

Handley: “Copy that.”

Handley: “OK, ten thousand pounds.”

Downey: “[garble]… Brenda 4… Roger… [garble]”

Time: 1+20

Red Crown: “Brenda, you’re in the dark, bandit 047 Bull’s-eye 14.”

Handley: “Roger.”

Downey: “Brenda 4, copy, blower.”

Blower — Pilot slang for afterburner.

Time: 1+38

Handley: “Red Crown, Brenda 1, where’s the bandit?”

Green: “Brenda 2’s bingo.”

Red Crown: “Stand by, you’re in the dark, estimate…”

Handley: “OK, give me egress heading.”

Unknown flight: “You’ve got friendlies up there to the left, boys.”

Time: 1+48

Red Crown: “Brenda, this is Worm. Estimating the bandit 039… [garble]”

Green: “Brenda 2 is bingo.”

Handley: “OK, 2, Bre… let’s bug out… bug out.”

Downey: [garble]

Time: 2+06

Handley: “Turn the pod off.”

AAA RHAW tone

Handley: “Pod off.”

Smallwood: “It’s off.”

Handley: “’Off I mean.”

Smallwood: “It’s off, we need about a zero nine zero… uh, one zero zero.”

Handley: “One zero zero, roger.”

Time: 2+21

Ellis: “Brenda 4’s bingo.”

Downey: “OK, Brenda and stay line abreast… [garble]”

Ellis: “Brenda 4.”

Unknown flight: “Take it around to the right.”

Time: 2+30

E-SAM high tone

Unknown flight: “Jay, check my 6 o’clock back there.”

Unknown flight member: “Rog, we’ve got two F-4s going back there.”

Unknown flight leader: “All right.”

Downey: “Brenda 4, move it up line abreast.”

Time: 2+40

Handley: “OK, Fletch, Brenda is coming out.”

Fletch leader: “Roger, we’re on station.”

AAA RHAW tone

Downey: “Move it out another thousand feet, Brenda 4.”

Ellis: “OK.”

Multiple AAA and SAM RHAW tones

Unknown flight: “Bingo.”

Time: 3+15

Smallwood: “E-SAM high at five.”

Handley: “Roger.”

Time: 3+19

Handley: “OK, I’ve got a MiG-21 at our 3 o’clock down there, Brenda 2… cross to the other wing; he may try to pop up on us.”

Green: “Roger.”

Faint golf-band one ring strobe at 4 o’clock, moving aft

Handley: “We’ve got 95 fuel.”

Smallwood: “Roger.”

Time: 3+40

Handley: “OK, I’m going to take one quick run at him. 2, you continue on out…”

Green: “I’ll stay with you.”

Unknown: “Brenda 1… [garble]”

Unknown: “Was that Brenda 1 exiting the area?”

Handley: “Negative, Brenda l’s on a MiG-19.”

Time: 4+02

Handley: “Give me 5 mile boresight.”

Garbled transmissions, RHAW tones, Smallwood straining against G forces

Smallwood: “You’ve got it.”

Milo flight: “Milo 2’s on.”

Handley: “Fucker won’t fire… there it goes.”

Garbled transmissions

Time: 4+21

Handley: “OK, I’m going heat.”

Smallwood: “OK.”

Green: “It went ballistic, lead.”

AIM-4E select tone

Unknown: “Say again.”

Unknown: “Say your position, 4.”

AIM-4E track tone

Time: 4+36

Handley: “Going guns.”

Smallwood: “OK.”

Sound of M-61 Gatling gun spooling up and down while firing under heavy G loading

Garbled transmissions

Time: 4+48

Handley: “He’s going down… you got him?”

Smallwood: “Yeah.”

Handley: “I got him… I got him… He hit the ground.”

Every fighter pilot on frequency: [lots of shouting at the same time]

Downey: “Way to go.”

Green: “Let’s get out of here.”

Time: 4+58

Handley: “I got him.”

Garbled transmissions… “Let’s get out of here.”

Handley: “That’s the gun, baby.”

Green: “Let’s get out of here, Brenda… he’s… uh, closing at six right now.”

Straining under Gs during pull down to the east from vertical quarter-roll and zoom maneuver.

1V1 — One-versus-one.

3/9 line — A line drawn on an aircraft from wing to wing. A fighter pilot uses this line to determine whether an aircraft is in front or behind him.

AB — Afterburner.

ACM — Air Combat Maneuvering.

ACT — Air Combat Tactics.

AI — Airborne Intercept.

Angels — Altitude expressed in thousands of feet. For example, “Angels 20” means an altitude of 20,000 feet.

Angle-off — The difference in degrees between your aircraft’s heading and a bandit’s heading. Also known as Heading Crossing Angle or HCA.

Armour Star hands — Big meaty, clumsy hands. Usually apt to oversteer or improperly fly an aircraft.

Aspect angle — The number of degrees from the tail of the target to your aircraft.

Attack geometry — The path that an offensive fighter takes as he converges on a bandit.

Bar — A sweep of a radar beam.

Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM) — This describes how aircraft maneuver against each other in one-versus-one air combat.

Belly check — A procedure to check out what’s below you by doing a 180° roll and looking where your underside was.

Boresight mode — A radar mode where the radar beam is fixed straight out the aircraft’s nose. Whatever comes into its beam first is automatically locked.

Butterfly setup — A combat training entry wherein two fighters start abreast of each other and then turn 45° away from each other. After reaching a distance of four miles, the two fighters turn back to each other for a head-on pass.

BVR — Beyond visual range.

Corner velocity — The airspeed where an aircraft has the quickest turn rate with the smallest turn radius.

Crawl back up in the cockpit — At times, the pilot may experience a phenomenon called “task saturation,” where too many things are going on at once. The pilot may then “fall behind” in his ability to keep up with his aircraft’s actions. He’ll then need to mentally crawl back up in the cockpit to regain complete control of his bird.

Dissimilar Air Combat Tactics (DACT) — An air combat engagement with multiple planes on each side, where each side’s aircraft are of different characteristics (e.g., F-16s vs. F-14s).

Drag — A maneuver to 60° or less of aspect.

Energy — In BFM, it is an aircraft’s maneuvering potential.

Enhanced Envelope Gun Sight (EEGS) — A new gun sight for the F-16 and F-15 aircraft. One of its most prominent features is the funnel.

Escape window — A pilot’s safe path out of a fight. It represents the chance of safely separating from the fight.