Su-27 Flanker Revisited: Intercept Training AAR

Often touted in the pre-release hype as the flight sim that will finally dethrone Falcon 3.0 as the King of Hardcore Sims , Su-27 Flanker seemed to be a dissapointment for many... at the first glance, that is. This sim lacks a campaign, doesn't have any "multimedia dazzle", has decidedly retro graphics and poor sound effects. It doesn't help that the final release (Flanker 1.0) was rushed for Christmas and therefore contained some bugs and left out some promised features. Upon closer inspection, however, Su-27 Flanker proved to be a delight for hardcore flight sim fans. The flight modeling, weapons modeling and avionics are simply among the best out there. And the AI had to be seen to be believed. Also, while the sim lacks campaign, the mission planner included in the sim is excellent, allowing creative fans to create intricate and challenging missions and share them via the Internet.

There are 3 major releases of Flanker 1:

• Version 1.0: Win95 only, many bugs, many unimplemented features
• Version 1.1: Win95 & DOS, most bugs squashed, virtually all features implemented. The Win95 version is then patched to 1.2 (and then 1.2a) version.
• Version 1.5: A.K.A. the Squadron Leader Edition. Further bug fixes, additional features and lots of additional missions.

I own the 2nd printing of the game (Version 1.1). The DOS half of this version is playable under DOSBox (I used CPU cycle=9000 and frameskip=0 on my Ubuntu box). The Win95 half should be playable on any Windows 9x or XP box. In a pleasant surprise, the Win95 half is also playable under Linux using Wine (I used Wine 0.9.27) as long as you remember to copy MFC30.dll to your Wine's Windows directory. I couldn't get the sound to work properly, though. Fortunately, since the sound effects in Flanker is abysmal, this is not much of a loss (for more information about Wine, go here).

It's been a while since I last played Flanker. So, in order to re-familiarize myself with this complex sim and to give an impression of how the sim plays, I have constructed a simple mission. This is a simple round trip from Sevastopol airbase and back. To spice things a bit, we will pass a training area (the boxed area below). Somewhere within this box is a MiG-23 that I have to intercept and shoot down.


The mission starts at around 4.30 local time. To the east the dawn is just breaking. Strapped in my Flanker, I eagerly awaits clearance from the tower to take off. I am carrying a full load of medium- and short-range missiles for this mission. After getting clearance from the tower, I ease the throttle forward to full military power, while stepping on the wheel brakes. The nose dips as the thrust builds up. When the RPM shows 100%, I release the wheel brakes and my Flanker starts its take-off run (most Eastern Bloc pilots, unlike their Western counterparts, do not use afterburners during take-off to conserve fuel). At approximately 300 kph, I ease the stick to my lap and the Flanker starts climbing. I quickly cleaned up my aircraft and follows the HUD cue to the first waypoint.


When I reached waypoint 2, I turned on my radar and change my HUD mode to DVB (BVR) mode. The MiG-23 is a relatively small aircraft, so my radar could not pick it up at first. Finally, at a range of approximately 96 km, my radar detected the MiG and I started to set up my intercept geometry.


After closing up to approximately 20 km, I lock the bandit and immediately launch an R-27re missile.

Simultaneously, I get indication that the bandit has locked me up. Had the bandit carried medium-range missiles, this will soon be followed by a PUSK (launch) indication and I will have to honor the threat by maneuvering against his missiles. This in turn will force me to break lock and my R-27 missile, being SARH, will have gone ballistic. Welcome to the world of long range missile battle in Flanker! Fortunately, in this scenario the MiG-23 carries only R-60 short-range missiles so I simply ignore the warning and keep on guiding the missile.

The bandit, upon detecting that I have launched my missile, breaks hard right while simultaneously releasing countermeasures. Apparently the chaff confuses the missile, causing it to fall short. The explosion from the near miss apparently causes some slight damage, however.


The chaff released by the bandit also managed to break my radar lock. As you can see in the picture below, there are now 2 target returns. One of them is the real target while the other is a chaff cloud. Which is which is a matter of guessing at this moment.


I waited for a few moments for the chaff return to disappear, and then easily managed to reestablish radar lock on the bandit and launched my second R-27re missile. This time, however, the bandit managed to outmaneuver my missile. The missile missed him and streaks harmlessly by.


By now we are entering visual range and I lost the lock on my radar. Fumbling for the radar switches, I suddenly saw the MiG. So I immediately switch to FIO (boresight) mode and maneuver my aircraft so that the MiG enters the R-27's seeker's FOV.


I locked him and immediately launched my third missile. The missile guided perfectly and destroyed the MiG. As his aircraft disintegrates, the pilot just manages to use his ejection seat to escape.


In retrospect, I should have switched to my R-73 dogfight missiles when we merged. In such a close range, the R-73 would have had a much better chance to hit the bandit. But during the engagement, I was to confused to even think about this. Luckily the R-27re hits its target. After destroying the MiG I switch to NAV mode for an uneventful RTB flight.