Good morning!

Today you will impersonate the commander of the Ramat David Air Base in Northern Israel and you will learn how to detect and engage an airborne target that is trying to evade.

You have two F-15A Baz (1985 variant), two F-15A Baz (1995 variant), six F-16I Sufa, two Gulfstream G550 AEW Nahshon, two 707 Saknayee tankers and two Hermes 900 Star UAV under your command.

Your fighters are armed as follows:

- 2x F-15A Eagle [Baz]: 2x AIM-7F Sparrow III and 2x AIM-9J Sidewinder.
- 2x F-15A Eagle [Baz]: 4x AIM-7F Sparrow III, 2x AIM-9L Sidewinder, and 2x Python 3.
- 2x F-16I Falcon [Sufa]: 2x AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM and 2x Python 5.
- 3x F-16I Falcon [Sufa]: 4x Python 5.

Missile Types:

- AIM-7F Sparrow III: Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH). Range: 2-38nm.
- AIM-9J Sidewinder: Rear-Aspect mid-course plus Passive Infrared terminal guidance. Range: 0.2-8nm.
- AIM-9L Sidewinder: All-Aspect mid-course plus Passive Infrared terminal guidance. Range: 0.2-10nm.
- AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM: All-Aspect Long-Range (Datalink (DL/INS) mid-course plus Active Radar Homing (ARH) terminal guidance. Range: 2-56.7nm.
- Python 3: All-Aspect mid-course plus Passive Infrared terminal guidance. Range: 0.2-8nm.
- Python 5: Inertial (INS) mid-course plus Passive Infrared (IR) terminal guidance. Range: 0.2-15nm.

Before we start, a quick recap of Missiles 101.

## Missiles 101

Rear-Aspect and Stern-Chase: Is a missile that can engage a target aircraft only when it is flying away from the attacker. This makes engagement with cannons or infrared homing missiles easier because of the minimal lateral target movement relative to the attacker and the fact that the hot engine exhaust are pointing directly at the attacker, making the infrared seeker's task of tracking the target much easier. These are usually old short-range missiles.

All-Aspect: A missile able to track a target no matter which way the target faces relative to the missile. An All-Aspect missile can be launched against a target in a tail-chase engagement, in a head-on engagement, in a side-on engagement, from above, from below, etc. These are usually newer medium or long-range missiles.

Off-Boresight: Helmet Mounted Display Systems allow the pilot to aim weapons at targets that are off-boresight from the line of sight of the aircraft. The missile can be launched to a point beyond its seeker limits to then start an autonomous target search. Using cues from the aircraft radar, a helmet-mounted sight, or off-board targeting data, the missile can thus undertake engagements in a 360-degree radius around the launch aircraft.

Active Homing: Active homing missiles use a radar system on the missile to provide a guidance signal. Typically, electronics in the missile keep the radar pointed directly at the target, and the missile then looks at this "angle" of its own centerline to guide itself.

Passive Homing: Infrared homing is a passive system that homes in on the heat generated by the target. Typically used in the anti-aircraft role to track the heat of jet engines, this means of guidance is sometimes also referred to as "heat seeking".

Semi-Active Radar Homing: Semi-active homing systems combine a passive radar receiver on the missile with a separate targeting radar that "illuminates" the target. Since the missile is typically being launched after the target was detected using a powerful radar system, it makes sense to use that same radar system to track the target, thereby avoiding problems with resolution or power, and reducing the weight of the missile. Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is by far the most common "all weather" guidance solution for anti-aircraft systems, both ground- and air-launched.
It has the disadvantage for air-launched systems that the launch aircraft must keep moving towards the target in order to maintain radar and guidance lock.

Mid-course Guidance: These missiles can be guided during the flight before the terminal guidance. This means that during the flight the missile will get updates on the target position and will react accordingly.

Terminal Guidance: Refers to any guidance system that is primarily or solely active during the "terminal phase", just before the weapon impacts its target.

Energy-based Flight Model for Boost-Coast Missiles: Boost-coast anti-air missiles (ie. most tactical missiles that are not powered continuously) use a realistic flight model that distinctly models the initial boost-sustain and post-burnout regimes and takes into account the effects of gravity (shedding speed while climbing and regaining it when diving) and aerodynamic drag. The drag changes with altitude, built-in drag coefficient and whether the weapon is maneuvering (pitching/turning) or not. This change makes it possible to apply real-life exhaust the threat tactics and constrains edge-of-envelope shots.

Default Aircraft Defensive Maneuvers: When evading incoming missiles aircraft will first try to outrun the missile while matching its relative pitch (i.e., climb if the missile is below them, or dive if it’s above them), and if the missile closes the distance, they will then attempt to beam it (or its parent guidance) while also reversing their climb/dive.