Replies

Back in the late 1970’s, my squadron sent a CH-53D (helicopter) to China Lake (Top Gun) to see what, if anything, we rotorheads could do about fighter attacks, other than trying to get above them and throw the tie-down chains out the ramp at them.

Our helo was fitted with a gun camera and plugged into their Air Combat computer system as being armed with Sidewinder missiles. Back then, few of the fighters had “look-down, shoot-down” radar and had difficulty picking the helo out of the ground clutter. The best technique was to stay low, looking for the fighter. If you saw him first, turn TOWARD him. His angle for a shot soon became too steep and he’d have to break off. Once he did that, do a 180 turn and pop him up the tailpipe with the Sidewinder.

The CH-53D, according to the China Lake computers, won about 50% of the time against most fighters in the inventory. The exception was, naturally, the Harrier, which won about 90% of the time. I’ve been told that below 15,000ft, the Harrier is quite formidable against other, much faster, fighters.