DEALING WITH (and avoiding) MIGS
 By General "Rammer" Jammer, CMH
 
 This set of tips is for the "EXTREME" F15 III pilot.  If you fly your
 missions with all your settings at the EXTREME difficulty defaults,
 you know that once enemy air forces are alerted to your presence,
 MIGS (and F5s, Sukhois, OV10s and the kitchen sink) will swarm after
 you like hornets.  Get caught over a high-threat area like suburban
 Baghdad by a couple of '29s and the best you can hope for is your
 picture on CNN, broadcast from the Mother of All Bunkers. 
 
 If you're going to avoid this dismal outcome you must plan your
 mission to do one of three things:
 1. Never be detected.
 2. Delay detection until you hit your
    targets and can make a fast getaway.
 3. Shoot down ALL the aircraft the
    enemy has available that day--then
    proceed to your targets (my personal favorite).
 
 NUMBER ONE is the most nerve-wracking and requires the most careful
 flying. If you're getting spiked before you ever get away from the
 tanker, skip to #3. Assuming you can at least start out undetected,
 the idea is to stay that way. If you ever hear the words "SPIKE MUD!"
 or see anti-aircraft fire, you've blown it--you're about to have
 company.  Beware; sometimes you may wake up the Gomers without having
 any clues that you've done it.  Flying too close to ground forces or
 missile boats can do it, so keep checking for bad guys.  The easiest
 way to know if any bandits are airborne is simply to toggle F10 while
 in the air-to-air mode--if none show up, you're ok. To stay off their
 radar        you must stay low, below 500' within 10 miles of any
 radar site is safe--lower if you must get closer.  Use your ground
 radar as you fly over enemy territory.  Identify and avoid! It's
 often easiest to go the long way around rather than zig-zagging all
 the way to the target.  If your target is a SAM or GCI radar, you
 probably can't bomb it with unguided munitions without getting
 spiked, so take it out with a Maverick or GBU.  
 
 NUMBER TWO, the "smash and dash" method, is appropriate when A: you
 have a target that will force you to get noticed, such as AAA
 downtown, AND B: you can't get AMRAAMs. Take the easiest target
 first, even if it is the secondary. Remember, you want to be heading
 for the fence at maximum warp as soon as the last target is hit and
 the bad guys scramble.  Obviously, if you have a "bell ringer" target
 way deep in Indian Country, "smash and dash" may not be an op- tion. 
 Sometimes it's better to live to fight another day--just tell 'em
 your Wizzo got lost. 
 
 NUMBER THREE is the way to go any time you can load AMRAAMS. Those
 beautiful 120s make you king of the world.  You can load eight of
 them, which is con- venient since the most bandits you will encounter
 on one mission is eight! The trick is DELIBERATELY to get yourself
 spiked, lure the bandits away from their AAA, SAMs and mountain
 hideouts, and SMOKE 'EM!  Simple, right?  Well, there are a couple of
 catches.  Deliberately getting yourself painted by radar is a good
 way to get a SAM on your tail. You must do it too far away for a SAM
 shot, yet still get their interceptors airborne. You must stay far
 out and wait for them to come to you where you won't be surrounded as
 you deal with them.  Also, you must blip their radar often enough to
 keep them intere- sted, or they'll stop coming and you'll waste too
 much fuel coaxing them into the killing zone again.  Once you've got
 them stirred up, it's a matter of flying back and forth (towards and
 away from enemy territory) and picking them off as they come.  Of
 course, this requires you to be fully qualified on authentic mode
 air-to-air radar operation.  Updates from AWACS don't come frequently
 enough to find all the threats in time.  You must stay aware of all
 E/A in about a 270 degree arc towards the enemy, so you'd better be a
 hot shot on the AN/APG-70.  You'll find that they tend to come in
 waves of 2, 3 or 4 at a time.  Deal with each group, then turn and
 fly towards home at low speed, waiting for the next bunch to make the
 fatal mistake of leaving their SAM cover. You can watch them with
 Rev.Tac.view (F10) and tell about where they are (especially over
 Korea, where you want to engage them near or over water). Once F10
 reveals no more bandits, you own their world!  Now you can loot and
 pillage at your leisure! You can obliterate that pesky GCI that's
 been spiking you every time you pull off the tanker.  You can take a
 dozen Mav's and clean house around Baghdad. All this mindless,
 destructive fun without ever having to check your 6!  Here are some
 tactical scenarios for various theater takeoff points to give you the
 idea:    
 
        Panama runway-- Climb due east to 7,500'until you get spiked.
 Most of the Banditos will come from the east, but watch out for
 threats from Nicara- gua. Fly an east-west race track pattern,
 keeping a sharp lookout to the south for that one sneaky guy.
 
 Iraq tanker-- Fly due north above 10,000' as far as the lake.  You'll
 be spiked well before you get there, but the bandits won't scramble
 until you're at the lake.  At the lake, turn and fly an east-west
 pattern, watching your radar.  Bandits will come from about 70
 degrees all the way around left to 280 degrees, but most will come
 from NNE.  If you stay near the lake, SAMs won't shoot.
 
 Korea tanker-- Fly south, descending to just above 10,000', for about
 35-45 miles at 60% throttle, then turn due west and check radar for
 Bandit- sans.  If they're still way out, turn and fly east a while to
 let them get out of the mountains, then turn back and engage. They'll
 all come from a generally westerly direction.  Don't fly too far west
 with SAM radars on your TEWS or you'll have a bad day.
 
 Korea west-- Trickier than most because you're already so close to
 enemy territory.  Fly about a 310 heading immediately after takeoff
 and stay under 2,000' until you're fence in.  Climb sharply until you
 get "Spike Mud", then drop chaff, roll over and dive for the deck
 NOW!  Head due south at high speed, watching the gomers get airborne
 with Rev.Tac. view.  When you see them nearing the coast, get an
 AWACS update and engage the nearest threat (he'll be about NNW). 
 Fire at maximum range and get your radar back on scan as quickly as
 possible--there's plenty more coming hard!  Threats will come from
 about 330, around to the right to about 40 degrees.  Heads up! 
 
 Regards,
 Rammer