aviation - the past, present and future of flight

‘survive’ the sortie was to use every trick

in the book. When we pushed into ‘hostile’

territory with the main package of aircraft

at around 20,000ft, it wasn’t long before the

Radar Warning Receiver [RWR] started to

alert us to the F-16s. The picture was a

familiar one and the calls from our  ghter

controllers on our strike package frequency

made it clear that, very soon, we would

be in their targeting range. I directed the

formation to ‘beam’ the threat – putting the

F-16s on our right-hand wing tip would

make it harder for their Pulse Doppler

radars to  nd us. The threat remained

illuminated on the RWR as my WSO

[Weapon Systems Officer] requested the

range of the hostile. “It’s time.” he said,

“Let’s do it.” It was this point that I made the

‘detonate’ call for both Tornados to descend

to low level. I nudged the throttles forward

and started to trim the wings back – very

soon we’d resemble a dart, but one covering

nine miles a minute, and as the ground

approached we both levelled the jets at

250ft and looked for the hills.

The F-16s on the RWR were moving

around into our six o’clock, and my WSO

was calling for a ‘delouse’ or assistance

from our own defensive counter air (DCA) of

USAF F-16s. The controllers were making

it very clear that the hostile F-16s were

chasing us down. “Hills to the right!” called

my number two. We turned and headed for

a valley. I called my wingman into ‘arrow’

• a tight formation that would look like one
  aircraft to an F-16’s radar at range – and
  slowly we began to beam them again. “The
  heading will be east,” called my WSO to the
  formation, informing our wingman that the
  next turn would be a 90° hard right turn to
  put the hostiles directly on our nose. “Ninety
  right, go!” I called, as we threw our 26-tonne
  warplanes into a full-power maximum
  performance turn.
  “I’m looking,” I said as I rolled out and
  hunted the skies above. “Got him,” came
  the call from the back seat, “on the nose two
  miles, high – they haven’t seen us.” The turn
  had been aggressive and, while coupled
  with a confusing radar picture caused by
  us hiding down low, this had made it hard
  for the F-16s to  nd us. By the time they’d
  realised what had happened we were
  inbound to our target and they were well
  behind. We hit the target, got home and
  survived another day. Back on the ground,
  as we walked back into the debrief, one of
  the Italian F-16 pilots found us and said,

“I do not-a know what-a happened. One-a

minute you are there and the next minute

you are not-a there!”

We ended up being the only two jets to

 nish the exercise without being ‘killed’ –

quite a rare feat at the time and thanks, in

part, to our low-level  ying skills.

ORIGINS

Why did the tactic of low  ying emerge?

Let’s go back to World War Two where

the preference for air operations was the

medium-level environment where aircraft

could use weather to hide from enemy air

defences. It was only with the advent of

Warsaw Pact radar-guided surface-to-air

and air-to-air missile systems that made

operating at altitude a more perilous activity.

Although the Avro Vulcan and English

Electric Lightning were procured to  y above

an enemy’s air defence network, the bomber

changed to a low-level role in the early

1960s to increase its chances of survival by

using terrain masking to hide from enemy

air and ground threats. It was this thinking

that led to the Blackburn/Hawker Siddeley

Buccaneer and Panavia Tornado being

acquired to do the same.

This line of thought continued until the

early 1990s when the invasion of Kuwait by

Iraq prompted a response that would change

air operations for many years to come. The

Iraqi desert wasn’t like northern Europe, its

 at and barren terrain leaving few places

to hide a jet from what was thought to be a

comprehensive SAM network.

The Tornados had made a good stab

at low-level ops and after initially suffering

losses during day attacks they quickly

moved to night. In all, six jets were lost – the

majority thought to have been from enemy

action. By the sixth day, the RAF had lost

25% of the aircraft downed after only having

 own 4% of the missions – something

had to change. There was reluctance for

the Tornados to abandon the low-level

environment as it was felt that this might

call into question the entire RAF’s strategy,

which had been developed for a European

war. After the destruction of the majority of

26 Aviation News incorporating Jets September 2018

A Swedish Air Force Gripen  ying through the Lake District. Foreign air forces are permitted

to  y at low level in the UK under the same guidelines followed by British military aircraft in

those countries. Overseas aircrews have to receive a brie ng on the UK low  ying system by a

British pilot. Nathan Daws

American forces based in the UK,

such as this F-15E Strike Eagle

from the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF

Lakenheath, regularly use the

low- ying areas. Nathan Daws