Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force BATTLEFIELD OPERATIONS FALCON 4.0 ALLIED FORCE Page 1 of 716 Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force Table Of Contents THERE'S A HUGE WAR GOING ON. ABOUT THIS MANUAL CHAPTER 1: LEARNING HOW TO FLY CHAPTER 2: LEARNING TO TURN CHAPTER 3: LANDING AND NAVIGATION CHAPTER 4: AIR-TO-AIR WEAPONS CHAPTER 5: AIR-TO-GROUND WEAPONS CHAPTER 6: AIR-TO-AIR REFUELING CHAPTER 7: MISSILE THREAT REACTION CHAPTER 8: BASIC FIGHTER MANEUVERS CHAPTER 9: INSTANT ACTION CHAPTER 10: DOGFIGHT CHAPTER 11: TACTICAL ENGAGEMENT CHAPTER 12: THE CAMPAIGN CHAPTER 13: LOGBOOK CHAPTER 14: ACMI CHAPTER 15: TACTICAL REFERENCE CHAPTER 16: SETUP CHAPTER 17: THE CONSOLES CHAPTER 18: THE HUD CHAPTER 19: THE MFDS CHAPTER 20: THE ICP AND DED CHAPTER 21: THE RADAR CHAPTER 22: THE VIEWS CHAPTER 23: RADIO COMMANDS CHAPTER 24: AIRPORT OPERATIONS CHAPTER 25: AERODYNAMICS AND G FORCES CHAPTER 26: ENEMY TACTICS CHAPTER 27: MULTIPLAYER CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS GLOSSARY AIRBASE TERMINOLOGY -3 -6 -7 - 26 - 55 - 85 - 117 - 173 - 179 - 187 - 205 - 208 - 215 - 253 - 284 - 290 - 295 - 298 - 316 - 352 - 384 - 403 - 418 - 441 - 452 - 463 - 470 - 477 - 494 - 507 - 509 - 519 Page 2 of 716 Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force "THERE'S A HUGE WAR GOING ON. SOMEONE PUT YOU IN CHARGE OF AN F-16." There you have it in a nutshell. The quote came from a fan of the Falcon series of simulators and it perfectly sums up what this game is all about. We say "game" with a little caution. For hardened followers of Falcon 4.0, the franchise has come to represent the most advanced and immersive military flight simulator ever produced for the home PC. Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force (FalconAF) builds upon that reputation to give the closest feeling yet of what it is like to fly one of the most important combat aircraft of the modern era. The F-16 Fighting Falcon, otherwise called the "Viper" by those that fly it, is the workhorse of the United States Air Force and many of her allies around the world. To date, more than 4,000 Vipers have rolled off the production line in various guises. The Viper's impressive combat record includes both Gulf conflicts and the war in the Balkans. In FalconAF, you'll learn to fly realistic air and ground attack missions and feel part of a dynamic, realtime war environment. This manual will guide you through every aspect of operating the Viper. Not only will you become proficient inside the cockpit, but you will also gain an understanding of the way weapons systems operate in the war and the complexities of fighting in the high-tech battlefield. There are four main areas of play in FalconAF. Instant Action This is your first port of call if you are looking for an adrenaline rush. Jump straight into a jet that's already in the air and shoot down as many enemy aircraft as you can. You can also attack ground targets in the same arena. It's no place for the faint hearted...the enemy will just keep on coming. Page 3 of 716 Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force Dogfight Battle it out head-to-head against computer-controlled aircraft or your friends over the Internet or on a Local Area Network (LAN). Fly in teams to practice in-flight coordination and maneuvers against the enemy. There are a number of easily selected parameters so you can focus on the skills, alone or in team play, that you want to hone. Training A number of training missions are here to help get you up to speed with the complexities and challenges of flying the F-16. From takeoff to missile threat avoidance, these missions will help prepare you for combat in the virtual battlefield. Tactical Engagement Create your own missions or fly missions created by others. FalconAF comes with a complete and easy to use mission editor. Let your imagination wander to design and fly any type of missions, be it Close Air Support, Intercept, or a dozen other mission types, then engage any type of enemy you want. You are the one in control. You can import custom made missions from your friends, fly or modify them. Campaign This is the most demanding yet rewarding challenge. You assume the role of a veteran F-16 pilot assigned to a squadron taking part in a conflict in either the Balkans or Korea. Your success or failure to accomplish your missions plays a direct part in the progress of the war. Watch how the campaign evolves dynamically and in real-time. No two missions are ever the same. The campaign is unscripted, unpredictable and unmatched in its realistic depiction of a dynamic battlefield environment. FalconAF accurately recreates the experience of operating an F-16 fighter. The principal version modeled in FalconAF is the Block 50/52. You will soon realize the immense depth of this simulation. The more you learn the more you begin to appreciate the amount of training and skill required by those pilots who do it "for real". There are several "tools" in the simulation that can help you assess your progress and debrief your missions. Logbook Details about your pilot character, such as callsign, are contained in this section. Here you can keep track of the number of aircraft you have shot down and the number of enemy units destroyed. Medals and ranks are awarded according to a points system. You can simultaneously keep track of multiple pilots in your logbook. ACMI Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation. Probably the most useful tool for the fighter pilot. The ACMI lets you review every aspect of your completed mission. Use simple movie style controls to move back and forth along to any time in your mission, to whatever event you want to see, or watch the mission in its entirety from a variety of viewpoints. You can analyze the way you successfully evaded an SA-2 or see how those two SU-27 Flankers got onto your tail. Page 4 of 716 Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force Tactical Reference The comprehensive reference guide for every aircraft, weapon and unit in the game. Here you can find out the radar warning signature of a Mig 21 for example, or the approximate range of a surface-to-air missile. A must for the discerning pilot. Page 5 of 716 Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force ABOUT THIS MANUAL This is some basic information about the styles used within this manual. Keyboard input is labelled like THIS. In this manual, the keystrokes relate to the US/UK keyboard layout. Note that keyboard layouts from other countries are different, so you might need to press a different key than specified in the manual. If available, check the keystrokes chart of your country, which you can find in the DOCS folder of your FalconAF installation. The chart contains all standard keystrokes and key combinations. Text that appears on the screen is labelled like this Audio responses are labelled like this For up to date information, you can visit Lead Pursuit at http://www.lead-pursuit.com/. Copyright © 2005, Lead Pursuit. All rights reserved. Page 6 of 716 Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force CHAPTER 1: LEARNING HOW TO FLY Part 1 of this Flight Handbook consists of a number of training missions. The missions themselves are located in the Training section of the game, and the mission descriptions and instructions are contained here in the manual. The missions are task-oriented and teach very specific skills. They provide all the instruction you will need to complete each learning objective, but there is one caveat. The training missions use a building block approach. If you try to fly one of the advanced missions without first learning the skill sets from the earlier missions, you may have difficulty. Overview These training missions are designed to teach you how to fly the F-16 in the same way as a real F-16 pilot learns to fly his jet. FalconAF is the most realistic flight simulation ever built, and features scalable levels of difficulty to aid new pilots. The skills and knowledge required to use the F-16's systems are not easy to learn, and will take time and effort to master. For this reason, it's suggested you follow this step by step training regimen. Training Mission Setup Page 7 of 716 Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force All of these training missions assume a specific setup. Please follow these instructions for all of the 30 training missions: 1. Select Setup from the main menu. 2. Click the Simulation tab at the top of the window. 3. Select "Ace" from the Skill Level option. This will set the Flight Model, Avionics, Weapons Effects, Autopilot, Air Refueling and Padlocking to the proper options. 4. On the right-hand side of the window, turn Labels on by clicking in the box. Note that the Skill Level changes to Veteran. 5. Click the Graphics tab at the top of the window. 6. Make your Graphics selections based on your processor, video card, available RAM, etc. See Chapter 16: Setup for recommended settings. How To Load A Training Mission To load a training mission, first click Training from the main menu. The list of training missions will then appear. Click on the training mission you want to start and click the Commit button in the bottom righthand corner. Under Mission Schedule on the next screen, the training mission will be selected and you will see the default name ("2nd Lt. Joe Pilot") next to an aircraft icon. If you have previously created a pilot in the Logbook, you will see the name you created instead. Click the Fly icon in the bottom righthand corner to start the training mission. Freeze Mode You can always press SHIFT-P at any time during the training mission to "freeze" the game. Unlike the regular pause mode (P key), freezing the game lets you operate all the F-16 avionics and instruments, most notably the radar. Note that the mission clock keeps ticking in Freeze mode. If you are supposed to be at a specific location at a specific time, the time you spend in Freeze mode counts against you. Page 8 of 716 Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force Mission 1: Basic Aircraft Handling The objective of this mission is to learn how to control the F-16. When you complete this mission, you will have a feel how the fighter responds to controls, and what it can do. There is no point taking a multi-million dollar aircraft up against the bad guys if you can't control the jet. This mission is the first in a series of aircraft handling training missions patterned after the Air Force's real F-16 training syllabus. In the real syllabus, this sortie is called "TR-1" or "Transition Sortie 1." Keep in mind, however, that when a pilot first starts to fly the F-16, he or she already knows how to fly other jets. Since you may be an experienced real life pilot, or a 3 year old who has accidentally hit the wrong icon, we're going to take it slow and start with the very basics. If you feel you've seen all this before, move on to the next mission. Controlling the plane in FalconAF and in the real F-16 is really not very difficult. Fighting in the jet, however, is another matter. Modern fighters like the F-16 are a dream to fly but devilishly hard to fight in. Today's fighters barrage the pilot with information which, when combined with increased speed, creates a tempo of air combat that is close to the limits of human capability. Along with the challenge of sensor fusion and tempo, modern fighters also feature a violent high-G environment. G force is the force that acts on the jet when it turns. It's like the old example of swinging a bucket of water on the end of a rope. The water stays in the bucket because of the force pressing the water towards the outside of the arc. The G force on an aircraft is essentially the same thing except greater in magnitude. The G forces of modern air combat would turn the fighters of old into kindling (or paper clips). The fighter pilots of yore, of course, faced challenges of their own. Their primary challenge was the sheer difficulty of just flying their aircraft. Older aircraft were simply a lot harder to fly than the F-16. Skills such as flying an F-86 close to its maneuvering limit, manual bombing in the F-105 and marksmanship in a P-51 demanded great flying skill. The F-16, in contrast, has a flight control computer that limits Gs and other critical flight parameters to help keep the pilot out of trouble. In addition, the F-16 Fire Control Computer puts the bombs on the target. In general, the F-16 is just easier to fly. This doesn't mean the pilot has to sit back and just press a button occasionally. There are challenges a plenty, and like any aircraft landing is going to keep you busy. Page 9 of 716 Battlefield Operations: Falcon 4.0 Allied Force Since FalconAF flies like the real jet, it should be relatively easy to fly. Just because flying the jet is easy, however, does not mean that it is effortless or that there is no learning curve. This mission will help you master flying so you can go on to the more complex and demanding air combat tasks. We will ...