Y-Wing Pilot
5:10pm, June 18, 2009
[Edit]
[Delete] | Hi.
I want to make this thread a resource or Q&A for anyone interested in playing military characters, but who may not know about simple procedures. What this won't be is comprehensive; presumably SW sensors work like real life radars in terms of operations (rather than function), and can have multiple modes. I won't be listing any of that shit. This will be basic and easy to understand.
I feel that as RPers, we're always trying to better our characters and get more of a 'feel' for them, so I hope this thread will help out. For now, I'm just going to focus on aviation. I'll let people like Vince or Oni do other branches/specialties/whatever if they want to add to this.
Consider the following scenario for fighter pilots:
A two ship formation of X-Wings (Callsign Cross) are on a fighter sweep mission in an atmosphere. Their sensors pick up a new contact at long range (let's call it at 200 klicks). The contact is now classified as a "bogey", and you don't go in guns blazing. The correct radio call (from whoever notices it first) is:
"Cross One, contact/spike, bogey, BRAA 040 for 200, 10,000."
"BRAA" (pronounced as 'brah' and not its individual letters) stands for Bearing, Range and Altitude. 040 is the contacts heading in relation to you (meaning if you're facing 180, which is dead south, you need to turn left to 040, which is Northeast). 200 is the range, in this case in kilometers, and altitude is 10,000 meters (or roughly 35,000 feet). BRAA is not used as an information request. For instance, you wouldn't say:
"What's my target's BRAA?"
.. but rather, you'd say something more like:
"Request vector to nearest targets."
.. to your combat controller. They would then respond:
"Cross One, bandits/targets/bogies BRAA 040 for 200, 10,000, closing/heading away, clear to engage/investigate/whatever."
In real life, a combat controller on the ground, or aboard an AWACS would be there to guide you, but SW militaries were designed by fucking retards. So we'll just deal with it like this.
Your sensors should assign a code, usually few letters and numbers, to the contact. That way, if there are multiple contacts, you can easily distinguish them by looking at the sensors. Let's call this one AA-001. An IFF squawk returns an "Unknown". They may be using a transponder that is not recognized or incompatible, or may be disabled or damaged.. whatever. Protocol then calls for you to hail the contact via the comm on an open frequency.. ask them their purpose and what kind of craft they're flying. Should they not respond, the contact remains an unknown, but should be treated as potentially hostile. Lock your weapons and let them know you're serious (BUT DON'T FIRE GOD DAMNIT), as they should have equipment on board that lets them know they're being painted by your sensors.
What is "hostile"? It depends on yoru rules of engagement. Generally, if the X-Wings are over a warzone, then the skies should only be filled with friendly or enemy aircraft. Simple choice there, if it shouldn't be there and you can't get them to respond.. light em up. However, your ROE may require you to VISUALLY ID the target first.. then again, your ROE may allow you to fire on anyone that doesn't return a friendly IFF squawk. If you're in an area with possible "neutral" parties, or worse, civilian aircraft in the area.. then these procedures become infinitely more important.
A "bogey" is only a bogey until it shows hostile intent, or if it is deemed hostile by your controller/flight leader/whatever. At that point it is reclassified as a "bandit". At that point you are "Clear/free/whatever to engage".
You accelerate to an attack speed, probably in the 500 knots range. In a two ship flight, the flight leader is the one who engages the target. The number Two ship is there to protect One, so you don't both go shooting at the target. If the target has a friend lurking around, then Two needs to be ready to pounce on him as soon as he makes himself known.
So you've closed the distance, and you're at maximum weapons range. Your best chance at hitting the target is at a closer range, but you can still give it your best shot at max range. Star Wars is very ambiguous about missiles and how they function, but for the purposes of this thread.. when you fire a missile, you would say:
"Cross One, FOX one."
For the purposes of this resource, let's say that larger warheads like Proton Torpedoes are denoted by the radio call "FOX one", and smaller dogfighting missiles like Concussion missiles are "FOX two". Yes, I know that canon sources have them listed as being the same, but I'm going by the X-Wing games here. You should at least say "missile away" to let everyone know that a missile is being fired.
Let's say the missile doesn't impact or is defeated by countermeasures.. whatever. I'm not taking things like jamming into account here. Point is, you didn't kill the target. You're now close enough for guns, so you call out that you've switched to guns over the comm.. once you're in range.
"Guns, guns from One."
Every time you pull the trigger (yes, EVERY time), you have to call it out, so someone doesn't cross in front of you and get caught in the middle. Obviously, if Two was firing, it'd be "Guns, guns from Two." Let's say you've shot the bandit down at this point, you would say something to indicate it, like "Splash one!".
Of course, there will be other radio calls.. it isn't all business. Generally between pilots who know eachother, they won't call eachother "one" or "two".. they may use their callsigns or even their names. Movies where you see bomber crews say "Gunner to pilot" are just stupid. But keep all this in mind next time you're in a dogfight!
Terms to remember:
Bandit: A contact that is deemed a legit target.
Bogey: A contact that is "unknown".
BRAA: Bearing, Range and Altitude
Contact: Your sensors report a contact.
Closing: Your target is heading toward you.
Fox: When you fire a warhead at an airborne target.
Guns, guns: What you call out when you fire a burst of gunfire from your main guns.
Heading Away: Your target is heading away from you.
IFF: Identification Friend-or-Foe. This helps you distinguish distant contacts as friendly or enemy.
Spike: Same as "contact"
I hope this helps some of you! Again, this is uber simplified, in some cases not correct with actual U.S. protocol.. it's meant to be easy to understand. You can chose to use this, or not.. keep in mind, I for one won't take you very seriously if you jump into an RP and go "LOL I FYAR MAI GUNZ AT U". It just doesn't work like that.
I'll write more when I feel like it.
Edited 12:39am, June 19, 2009 by Y-Wing Pilot, author. |
