The general tactics which you use in the original missions will work fine in the ViOLENT MOON missions. Below are some notes on how to survive in the battle area... Formation Flight F-18s do not cruise around at low speed in enemy airspace. It just is not that smart at all. You need speed to get through and past any threats which may appear. The F-18s in your flight will cruise at over 400KIAS. They will keep above 400KIAS when they are in Iraqi airspace and even push it up to 480KIAS. This is just slow enough for you to stay with them at 100% power (also termed Mil Power). At speeds lower than 480KIAS you can throttle back to about 95% and still keep up. Cruising below Mil Power will extend your time over the target. You do not want to linger over the target areas at all in these missions. Get in fast, strike hard, and get out. Sometimes an extra AAA or SAM site may "wake up" a few minutes AFTER the time by which you should be on your way home. So keep an eye on your wingman or flight. If they are leaving the target area and you are miles behind them then you will find yourself in trouble. Similarly a number of IQAAF Migs may arrive some 5 or 10 minutes after your flight has left to recce the area. If you are still there you will find yourself outnumbered. Speeds above 540KIAS are not wanted either on the way to the target. You will have to burn a lot of fuel to reach those speeds and they are of no use when the enemy fighters arrive. You can use that sort of speed to outrun the Mig-21s on your way home if you have a head start. Push it up to 600KIAS with Zone 3 afterburner for a minute and you will leave them behind. Get low and they will lose radar lock and pull off for home. The Mig-23s may catch you if they are not carrying too much ordnance. The SU-27s will certainly catch you. If you get REAL low (-50 feet) with a fighter right on your tail then you can "fool" the artificial intelligence in the fighters... they will stay right on top of you but will not go any lower to shoot. It's a dicey tactic though. Follow your wingman closely when you take off. He blasts off the runway at Zone 3 afterburner until he reaches about 1,000feet. Then he goes to Zone 1 afterburner until he reaches cruising speed (around 400KIAS). Use Zone 1 to keep up with him. Do not use the various wingman commands too much. If you tell a Hornet to close with you he will use a lot of power to get to you and then use Zone 1 afterburner to stay with you if you maneuver. This will quickly burn off his fuel and he'll bingo early. There is no need to make him form up with you on the ingress to a target. Let him get there on his own and you form on him instead. He may even be tasked to hit a AAA site or something and if you have him formed with you he will not break off to hit it. Allow him to continue his own mission until he has fired at the ground targets.   Air To Ground You are the main SAM killer in these missions. The SAMs are randomised and your wingmen cannot deal with them. There are no unbelievably accurate SAM crews in these missions but they are devious. The maximum range from which to shoot a HARM is from about 17.5 miles out in these missions if you are below 10,000 feet. Most of the SAMS will fire at you from 15 miles out if you are above 1,000 feet. If you keep advancing on a SAM site, on your way in to strafe it, the crew may switch off their radar and run for cover as you close on them. If you have a HARM in the air it will miss. Then they will switch back on radar and get you before you get within guns range.     You have a choice to make then: either fire off a HARM at a site which is not in your flight path and continue with your flight "away"from it, or shoot a HARM and hope it hits the site as you approach. Whatever you choose to do remember to keep low and fast with your flight... nothing a hardcore SAM crew likes better than a high and slow and single bogey. The AAA is best hit with a HARM from within 10 miles. You can close to within 4 miles to ensure that the HARM will get there before they have a chance to switch off their radar. We cannot lock a FLIR or Maverick directly onto the AAA by way of a "slaved" radar lock. You have to spot them visually and in daylight this is nigh impossible. At night it is impossible. One way to do it however (there is a way around everything) is to lock up the AAA with your HARM and then follow the diamond down to just over 1.0 mile out. That will point you right at the AAA site. At 1.0 mile out quickly switch to guns and work the tracers across the point where the diamond was. If you are going fast enough (over 500KIAS) you may survive a pull out if you miss. It is not wise to duel with these sites though... shoot them from BVR with a HARM. Hornet Two likes to get close to AAA and shoot it with a Maverick from about 2-3 miles out. Sometimes to make sure it is really dead he'll roll in with two Mk82HD Snakeyes to finish it off. He's very aggressive that guy... don't get in his way and don't roll in right behind him in case he misses... An optimum strafing technique is to approach the target until 3-4 miles out, then roll out to the left or right, smoothly pull up to about 2,800 feet, roll to check your target ("up" through the canopy) and then smoothly pull into it. This will give you about a 20 degree dive onto it. Push your speed up to about 500KIAS and roll on in. Don't be afraid to pepper the entire area with your pistol... might as well use up all the 20mm rounds and survive instead of dying with a full magazine.   Air To Air This section is just going to go over BVR missile techniques, not "knife fighting" with your guns. The first thing to remember is that you are supposed to fight in pairs... period. The second thing to remember is that you only dogfight in close with an enemy if you positively, absolutely have to kill the gomer right that second. That means slowing down or turning for a guns/Sidewinder opportunity. Slowing down or turning in a all-aspect missile-equipped multi-bogey environment will get you killed. Two F-18s from the VFA-81 Sunliners shot down two Mig-21s during the first few hours of Desert Storm. They did not turn with the Migs, or slow down, or use guns. They shot them in the face with Sidewinders at close range as they passed and then they kept going. "A Sidewinder shot from the hip" is the tactic to use then.     The Mig-21s in these missions do not have medium-range missiles. They can only shoot at you from about 6 miles out. A good tactic is to close in on them to about 6.5 miles and shoot an AMRAAM at them. Then accelerate in to finish them with AIM-9s if you have to... but you usually won't. If you get to a target and bogeys start appearing but your flight have not finished with the ground attack then shoot AMRAAMs at the lead bogeys from about 20 miles out. You may get the Mig-21s if they keep closing from that distance and you will make the SU-27s break off their attack and turn away as they try to outrun the missiles. Either way it will buy time for the rest of the flight to get set up to engage them. Shoot the AMRAAMs from about 16 miles out as a matter of course. The range is much longer than it shows on the "shoot"cue anyway (if you have some altitude to let it "glide"). Try to get behind the other Hornets or F-16s as much as you can when closing on a group of IQAAF fighters. Watch the radar to see which bogeys are turning away to avoid the missiles. You will easily pick up any bogey who has not been targeted by your Allies. If you do gang up on a single bogey with another Hornet or F-16 then the worst thing to do is to start turning and following them. You risk a collision. Extend a little and get above the fight, dive in through it and out the other side. Aim for the bogey from some distance away and fly right at him. If you miss then zoom high, Immelman, and come back over on top of him. The other ally will keep the bogey turning... you just set up for a shot as you zoom through. Do not waste AIM-9s at SU-27s if you are pursuing them at their six o'clock, even if they are well within range. The SU-27 will defeat 90% of your Sidewinder shots. Try to get closer and hit him with some 20mm rounds. If the SU-27s drag the fight up above 20,000 feet then point your nose down and dive to about 5,000 feet. There is no need to follow one up that high. He'll be coming back down but usually will not be able to pull out of his dive.     Avoid head on gun shots from the Migs. They only have to get one hit on you to ruin you. If you have to take the shot then watch them as they close. They tend to shoot once at about 1.0 mile out and then aim again before shooting a second time. That is when you shoot back if you can dodge the first burst. Shoot and then break downwards before the second burst arrives. If you are on the six o'clock of a Mig-23 or Mig-21 and are about to shoot a Sidewinder at them then make sure that you: A) Lead them well ie. aim in front of them. Put them right on the edge of the aiming circle. B) Quickly unload your F-18 before you fire ie. get your Gs down. This will allow the greatest chance of a hit with the Sidewinder. The same goes from when you shoot the M61 Vulcan at a bogey. Lead the bogeys well... aim really far out in front of them and then bring the tracers back down trhough them. Don't shoot at ranges about .5 nm anyway. A note about the Lead Computing Sight: Try not to use it. Use your own eyeball to judge the amount fo lead that you need. Start off by putting the LCS right in front of the bogey not right on him. Then fire in quick short bursts. Watch where the tracers are going.... lead a little more... see if you can spot any "sparks"... lead some more. You really do need to pull a lot more lead than you think. You have to shoot so far in front of the bogey most times that he is under your nose and out of sight for a second or two if you are close and he is turning very hard. Sometimes you may see Hornet Two or the other Allied planes shooting missile after missile at a bogey who is already burning and on the way down. That is because the engine(s) on the bogey is/are still running. The AI in Hornet will only target flying objects whose engines are running. This is also the reason why you can't switch off your engines while in flight. The bogeys would leave you alone. It's best to try and kill a flaming bogey before Hornet Two wastes all his missiles on him if you can. Otherwise do not be tempted to finish "flamers". If you see a bogey going down then let him crash... you might collide, and die, if you try to shoot him with your guns (he'll be gliding at about 75-80KIAS).