Air Superiority Achieved with Cannons
Szöveg: Péter Snoj | 2015. március 23. 6:41Following a successful live firing campaign executed with Sidewinder missiles, the Mauser internal cannons of the JAS–39 Gripens took the lead role on the Hungarian fighter pilots’ live fire exercise in Sweden. (Report from the spot)
Regarding the tasks in the morning, the air-to-air gunnery was not different from the missile firing campaign conducted on the previous day.
Early in the morning, two and a half hours prior to the first take-off, the ground crews towed the aircraft out of the hangars and started the pre-flight checks. This time, however, they didn’t put missiles on the wingtips but rather loaded 27mm training rounds into the fuselage of the fighters.
The pilots had 60 rounds of ammunition available to “shoot" the expected results. While flying the sortie, they had to deal with a complicating factor because the target was an unusual one. This time the Hungarian pilots – who are already very proficient at destroying ground targets – were tasked to hit a drogue that was similar to windsocks used in airports and had a built-in detector to record the sound of bullets whistling past the drogue or hitting it. The instrument with a detection range of 10 meters was being towed alongside its orange streaming cover by a LearJet 35 target tug, which was flying with an altitude difference of some 800 meters.
At first blush, this maneuver may seem quite dangerous, yet it is a time-honored technique that is regularly used in Sweden, and the only thing the LearJet pilots requested from the Kecskemét airmen was “to fire at wingless objects only". The aircraft – called the “tractor" in Sweden – was carrying the targets under its wings, and then, having climbed to the necessary altitude, the pilot released them at a proper distance with the help of a winch.
After the gunnery, Capt. Viktor Langó told us that a mission like this is not a simple one to accomplish even with a fourth-generation Gripen which has several instruments to help the pilot in tracking the target with precision. “We needed to use all our skills in firing at such a small moving object", the captain added.
The most spectacular proof of the successful gunnery was the multiple holes showing up on the “tractor"-towed “windsock" after the completion of the mission.
Photos by the author
