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COW] INSIDE THE US NAVY'S FIGHTER WEAPONS SCHOOL T I PE + N LESSONS : IN COMBAT aie VIETNAM — LIBYA — THE FALKLANDS — IRAQ — THE BALKANS ¢ *, conipar (KEW THE NEED FOR SPEED ALL THE FRIENDLIES FROM F-4 T0 F-35 HOME-FLOWN BOGIES THE AIRCRAFT THAT PLAY THE ENEMY il i 9 95387 | {i The founding of TOPGUN - the Navy Fighter Weapons School - is a familiar story in Naval Aviation annuls. TOPGUN was established in late 1968 with three goals: (1) to teach Navy fighter aircrews air combat tactics; (2) to teach its graduates how to train others in those tactics; and (3) through training, to ensure that Naval Aviation “never again” forgot its lessons learned from prior wars. craft as they came } | r Board = /- How does the culture of excellence pass from generation to generation of ti a instructors? What did TOPGUN do during the 1991 Gulf War? How did it evolve and survive during the turbulent 1990s? Two books by military aviation author Brad Elward provide key insights into TOPGUN’s history as never before told and his larger work, TOPGUN — The Legacy, provides answers to these questions and more! mone AVAILABLE NOW a m 6Available in the summer A concise photo © TOPGUN of 2021, the definitive history of TOPGUN: 5 history of the Navy Fighter TOPGUN: The US Navy Weapons School: Fighter Weapons School: 2 TOPGUN: The Legacy - The Complete History |= = Fifty Years of Excellence . of TOPGUN and Its Impact on Tactical Aviation is : - (Legends of Warfare: Aviation) = a 704-page history based on interviews with is a 144-page photo history of ; ~ over 450 [a eae me Sree mee gee | jahliantinat | ae commanding officers, plus hundreds of historica er neha in le ‘ c % - documents that provides the details of how = = TOPGUN evolved over the decades, including flown over its 50 year history. : ~ its programs, its aircraft, and its people. programs, culture, and the aircraft Available now at www.Amazon.com and www.schifferbooks.com Available for pre-order at www.Amazon.com and www.schifferbooks.com MAMN A .. The World’s Fastest STE tS Aviation Website a |} © GREAT REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE : mr e In-depth articles, videos, quizzes and more, HISTORIC = ' __ with new material added daily aan : ¢ From historic and military aviation to commercial and simulation — Key.Aero has it all e Exclusive interactive content you won't find anywhere else ¢ A fully searchable archive ¢ Access to all the leading aviation magazines ¢ Membership to an engaged, global aviation community e Access on any device — anywhere, anytime Subscribe FROM JUST £5. 99 for oF unlimited access 079/22 TOPGUN Today: 2020 to present TOPGUN Aircraft: Super Hornet TOPGUN Emerges: 1965 to 1972 TOPGUN Aircraft: Phantom Lessons in Combat: Vietnam Miramar - TOPGUN’s Ancestral Home TOPGUN Adversary: Skyhawk TOPGUN Expands: 1973-1989 TOPGUN Aircraft: Tomcat Lessons in Combat: Libya TOPGUN Consolidates: 1990-2000 TOPGUN Aircraft: Hornet Lessons in Combat: Operations Desert Storm and Southern Watch TOPGUN’s Place in the Navy TOPGUN Adapts: 2001-2019 TOPGUN Adversary: Talon Lessons in Combat: Operations Deny Flight, Desert Fox and Allied Force TOPGUN Adversary: Tiger Lessons in Combat: Afghanistan and Southwest Asia Fallon - Room to Grow TOPGUN Adversary: Fighting Falcon TOPGUN Integrates the Fifth Generation TOPGUN Aircraft: Lightning II TOP GUN the Movie Thanks to Hollywood, TOPGUN - the Navy Fighter weapons School - will always be associated with the 1986 release TOP GUN and, more recently, TOP GUN: MAVERICK. The 1986 movie brought TOPGUN into the public eye, but by then it had spent 17 years making the best of the US Navy’s fighter crews even better. Born from the need to remedy the US Navy’s poor showing against MiGs during the Vietnam War, TOPGUN reintroduced the navy to close-in air combat manoeuvring - dogfighting. Over more than 50 years, it has revolutionised how the US Navy trains and employs its fighter crews, so that today’s TOPGUN graduates are the best they’ve ever been. The Real TOPGUN ISBN 978 1 913295 387 Editor: Paul E Eden Senior editor, specials: Roger Mortimer [email protected] Jmagic DESIGN SERVICES, India Subscriptions email: [email protected] Mail Order email: [email protected] Website: www.keypublishing.com/shop PUBLISHING Group CEO: Adrian Cox Publisher: Jonathan Jackson Head of Publishing: Finbarr O'Reilly Head of Marketing: Shaun Binnington Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincs, PE9 1XP Tel: 01780 755131 Website: www.keypublishing.com ing Sales Manager: Brodie Baxter Email: [email protected] Tel: 01780 755131 Advertising Production: Debi McGowan Email: debi. [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION/MAIL ORDER Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 300, Stamford, Lincs, PE9 1NA Tel: 01780 480404 Fax: 01780 757812 PRINTING Precision Colour Printing Ltd, Haldane, Halesfield 1, Telford, Shropshire. TF7 4QQ Paul E Eden Author and Editor DISTRIBUTION Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 Poultry Avenue, London, EC1A 9PU Enquiries Line: 02074 294000. We are unable to guarantee the bonafides of any of our advertisers. Readers are strongly recommended to take their own precautions before parting with any information or item of value, including, but not limited to money, manuscripts, photographs, or personal information in response to any advertisements within this publication. © Key Publishing Ltd 2022 All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the copyright owner. Multiple copying of the contents of the magazine without prior written approval is not permitted. www.key.aero 3 be ace 4 The Real TOPGUN personnel, an Adversary Instructor course responsible for training all navy and USMC adversary pilots, the Re-Blue SFT refresher course and Senior Officer Course/Senior Officer Refresher Course (SOC/SORC). It is also involved in the Strike Fighter ACM Readiness Program (SFARP), takes an important role in defining and developing strike fighter tactics, and ‘ AW uk works alongside industry and senior military leaders and politicians to help formulate future requirements for aircraft and weapon systems. Students are individually selected for SFTI, coming to TOPGUN after their first at-sea phase when they would normally be entering a period of shore duty. After “A Gibbons and Anderson’s flightline walk may have been in part for the photographer, but it also shows NAWDC’s Super Hornets, bearing the organisation’s lightning flash with the TOPGUN badge superimposed. US Department of Defense € Scale models on sticks are as important for teaching air combat today as they were in 1969. US Department of Defense www.key.aero 5 Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center Departments 2022 Department ——_| Descr N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 N7 N8& NQ N10 N20 A Lieutenant Nikkol Rajkovacz was a TOPGUN instructor in 2021. The school welcomed its first female student onto the AIC course in 1979 and its first on the SFTI course, a Tomcat RIO, in 2001, but women had worked on the TOPGUN staff since 1973. US Department of Defense > ATOPGUN instructor - note the patch on his right arm - climbs into a NAWDC F/A-18C for an adversary sortie. US Department of Defense 6 The Real TOPGUN ion Personnel Resources Information Warfare Directorate Operations Department Maintenance Department Naval aviation tactics, techniques and procedures standardisation, and Joint Close-Air Support Division. Previously known as STRIKE or STRIKE U Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) Rotary Wing Weapons School Safety Department Airborne Electronic Attack Weapons School (HAVOC) Tomahawk Land Attack Missile Department NAWDC operates previoush F-16A/B Block 15 OCUs as part of fleet. US Department of Defense graduating, they serve their shore duty with a second-line unit, perhaps even as a TOPGUN instructor. When they finally return to the fleet, they become their squadron’s centre of tactical expertise, fully equipped to share their knowledge effectively while managing the unit’s SFWT training commitments. As well as being subject matter experts and lecturing on “A TOPGUN their topic, TOPGUN instructors fly as ‘blue air’ alongside instructors join a their students, and against them as ‘red air’, Blue air means eels flying aircraft from NAWDC’s F/A-18C/D and F/A-18E/F of stick models fleets; NAWDC recently received its first F-35C and this will racked on the wall - two MiG-29s, a presumably join the NFWS programme in due course. Red . war ‘ 7 - Su-27 and a pair of air is primarily delivered on NAWDC’s Hornet, Super Hornet Super Hornets. US and F-16A/B, but TOPGUN also works closely with VFC-13, Department of Defense Fallon’s resident adversary provider, using its F-5N Tiger Ils. All F-16 training is handled in-house. TOPGUN’s instructors are highly experienced pilots and follow a special type : - < TOPGUN conversion and training course known as VIPER U. oversees US Navy adversary provision. Fallon home It therefore has a The 1986 movie Top Gun thrust the NFWS and NAS Miramar pres suri aud into the limelight and for many aviation and film fans, aircraft in this TOPGUN and Miramar are inseparable. In fact, the school formation, even moved to NAS Fallon in 1996 and although there were jeee nls teething problems, it now sees the benefit of being an Tattlcal Support important component within the wider NAWDC construct. Wing at Key West, TOPGUN sits alongside similar centres of excellence for the Florida. This 2021 % E training exercise E-2, H-60 helicopter and EA-18G Growler. NAWDC provides waxsupRorting centralised maintenance and access to the instrumented VAQ-209 and Fallon Range Training Complex. VFA-106. US Navy TOPGUN has reinvented itself several times as new aircraft have come online and external pressures have threatened its existence. It has always struggled for access to the latest standard aircraft, but its deep involvement & Anadversary in F-35C tactics and training development, added F/A-18C taxies out at to NAWDC’s additional pull, should see the problem NAS Fallon. alleviate. TOPGUN was established to remedy the US Us Department of Navy’s poor showing in air-to-air combat over Vietnam. Defense In the five decades since, it has achieved fundamental change not only in the US Navy’s strike fighter community, but across others where the TOPGUN model has been taken as the paradigm for excellence. Navy Fighter Weapons School Courses 2020-present AIC Air Intercept Controller for E-2 and ship AICs 1972-present Re-Blue SFTI refresher training 1999-present SFTI Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor 1995-present SOC/SORC Senior Officer Course/Senior Officer Refresher Course 1986-present www.key.aero 7 al Jl] 8 The Real TOPGUN SUPER HORNET (@9 he F/A-18E and F Super Hornet are the cornerstone of US naval airpower. Upgraded to embrace the most recent advances in avionics and weapons capability, the aircraft has also been developed into the EA-18G electronic attack and jamming platform. TOPGUN saw its first Super Hornet in 2001 and since then it has become its stock in trade. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the NAWDC fleet includes F/A-18E and F aircraft upon which the school is able to call for instructor currency, blue air, and adversary training. The Super Hornet is a fitting continuation of the US Navy’s Hornet saga. The service had initially been unenthusiastic about the F/A-18 Hornet as it replaced the A-4 and A-7 and supplemented the F-14, but latterly embraced the highly capable later-model F/A-18C. Subsequently, faced with no choice at all, the US Navy again reluctantly turned to the F/A-18 platform to fulfil another requirement it never expected to have. Through the 1980s, navy planners expected to see attack capability enhanced exponentially through the F-14D, an advanced A-6F Intruder and the all-new, stealthy McDonnell Douglas/General Dynamics A-12. Consideration was also A Without seeing the two side-by- side, the Super Hornet’s increased size over the Hornet is difficult to appreciate. This angle ona low-level VFA-14 F/A-18E emphasises the increased area of the model’s leading edge root extensions. US Navy www.key.aero 9 A The larger wing and lengthened fuselage dictated that the Super Hornet’s tail surfaces also be enlarged. This VFA-192 F/A-18E was aboard USS Carl Vinson in the South China Sea in January 2022. US Navy 10 The Real TOPGUN given to improving the Hornet as a complement to the latter. Of the three major programmes, only the F-14D came to fruition. As funding became scarce, the navy chose to protect the ‘Gucci’ A-12 and sacrifice the A-6F. But the stealthy aircraft suffered budget and developmental challenges that saw it too cancelled, in 1991. Another new attack platform was in the pipeline, the AX, projected for 2020 service entry, but with no A-6F and no A-12, the US Navy needed an interim platform, and fast. The F-14D might have filled the vacancy, but there were also suggestions from within the navy that a second- generation Hornet could do the job and, equipped with a new long-range missile, it could also replace the ageing F-14 in the fleet defence role. As a result, in June 1992 McDonnell Douglas was contracted to produce seven Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) aircraft. Their designation followed on from the original Hornet series so that the five single-seaters were designated F/A-18E and the two-seaters F/A-18F. The type was named Super Hornet, rather than following the F-4 Phantom II, A-7 Corsair Il trend. Bring-back With the Cold War by now firmly in the past, the so-called peace dividend brought with it cancellation of what had been the AX project and was by now known as A/F-X. The navy was left with no choice but to proceed with the Super Hornet, which would also take on the tanking mission of the S-3B Viking, replace the ‘legacy’ Hornet and, ultimately, the EA-6B Prowler. The Tomcat’s fleet defence mission was also still on the Super Hornet’s card, albeit without the new long- range missile, which had been shelved.