Glossary and Info

WCS

Weapons Control System ( Fire Control System ): Those components which make an otherwise very expensive and powerful two-passenger aircraft ( with ridiculously small cargo-handling capability ) into a fighter/attack jet. That is - tracking radar; target-interception and bombing release computers; missile-guidance transmitters; optical sighting sytems; video and/or IR tracking devices; and laser target designators; all of these are components of a WCS.

Fighter/Attack Jet

An armed plane containing a functional WCS and two aircrew members. ( One "stick actuator" and one GIB who works the WCS, ECM, and other avionics which provide the craft with a war-making capability).

Why TWO aircrew ?

One is the driver, the other makes it work. Seriously now: It has been proven that there is just too much going on in combat for one set of eyes. Most fighter jets were fitted with outside rear-view mirrors as a result of experiences in Vietnam because of this. Displaying critical instrument, targetting, and threat readings on the pilot's sight glass helps - but if two crewmen often undergo "task saturation" in aerial combat, it is just wishful thinking to assume that a lone man will not.

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CCIP

Continuosly-Computed Impact Point. A bombing mode used on certain series of F-4Es fitted with the digital ARN-101 navigation system instead of the older ASN-46 INS. This was an attempt to accomodate those pilots who couldn't or wouldn't allow the computer to release the bombs at the correct time; it combined radar range with inertial data to continuously move the pipper over the point where a bomb released NOW would hit the ground. With a properly-aligned radar set, it worked rather poorly. A radar mile is 6000 feet; "Arnie" thought a mile should always be 5,280 feet. For comparison, see Dive Toss.

DIRECT

A bombing mode used when all else fails. DIRECT mode places the crew in danger they otherwise could avoid, for it mimics the "eyeball" bombing used in World War I biplanes, taking them directly over the target. Each press of the Pickle button produces an immediate bomb release.

Dive Toss

The most accurate ( dumb ) bomb mode, and the one with the lowest target exposure. In Dive Toss, the crew points the nose at the target in a shallow dive, locking the radar onto the ground target. When the pipper is over the target, the pilot presses and holds the pickle button. This signals the ASQ-91 bombing computer to begin the analog computation of the ideal dynamic bomb release point. The crew commences a wings-level pullup, and the bomb is released. A properly-maintained system can toss a 500 lb. bomb in a 5-mile arc, hitting a fiftyt-foot circle centered on the target - without the aircraft ever approaching the "bad guys". This was the standard bombing mode used by F-4Es.

DVST

Direct-View Storage Tube. The original radar scope used in the F-4E, it used digital techniques ( in 1968 ) to display TV video and acquisition/lockon symbols. As the use of raster-scan TV weapons and sensors increased, the persistent, smeary, poor-quality of the TV display on DVSTs forced its replacement. See SONYs, DSCG, MSDG, Pave Spike, Pave Tack, and TISEO.

DSCG

Digital Scan Converter Group. This excellent system, built by Texas Instruments around 1975, sampled the bottom-to-top radar scans, writing them to RAM, then read them back for display in the conventional left-to-right TV format. Weapon or sensor TV video was unprocessed. DSCG showed both radar and TV equally well, though some older heads never did get used to seeing "square" radar noise pixels... Gone was the Vc ( target closing velocity ) circle/gap, replaced by numbers on the screen. Target altitude was also displayed in this way. DSCG even possessed features which never were implemented - except by curious WCS troops: a small section of the radar scan ( centered on the acquisition symbols ) could be digitally expanded by a factor of eight, increasing resolution at long ranges.

ECM

Electronic Countermeasures. A wide range of systems ( some of which, technically, were not ECM ) that included jamming pods, Radar Homing and Warning ( RHAW ) receivers, RF Spectrum analyzers, and chaff/flare dispensers. While WCS provided the ECM systems just one signal ( so that it wouldn't identify the plane's own radar as a jamming source ), ECM was a vitally-important component of successful combat missions. ECM weenies were a separate breed from WCS troops; they had fun with bomb jammers and wore pocket protectors.

GIB

"Guy in Back"; the Weapons Systems Officer ( WSO - pronounced "whiz-o" ), Electronics Warfare Officer ( EWO, "Ee-woe" ), or Navigator. For a time at Hahn, one F-4E GIB was "the fastest man in the Army": an anti-aircraft artillery commander on flying status. Flight Surgeons occasionally fulfill the role, as do enlisted tow-reel operators.

HUD

"Heads-Up Display"; a sight glass display optically focused so the pilot need not change the focus of his eyes ( near-far ) when looking at the data it presented and the target ahead of him. Some contain a mini-representation of critical instruments as well as the basic "artificial horizon" and targetting information. See Reticle.

INS

Inertial Navigation System. ( Sometimes called "I'm Not Sure"...) A gyroscopic navigation system with good-to-excellent navigation accuracy. The INS was important to WCS because it provided all of the x,y,z and vertical velocities which the aircraft was undergoing, allowing the WCS to accurately compute bomb release ballistics - even during violent maneuvers.

MSDG

Multi-Sensor Display Group. Also known as "Trash, by Hazeltine". With the installation of TISEO around 1973, a good TV display was necessary. Unfortunately, they picked this kluge, which had over 200 inter-active alignments, all of which had to be constantly tweaked. ( With MSDG, the Vc circle was very likely to resemble an egg - or even a figure-eight ! ) TV didn't look bad on it, though, even if the radar was a mess. MSDG used the brute-force method of scan conversion: a tiny radar scope was viewed by a TV camera, buried deep inside a black box. All of these were quickly replaced by DSCG.

Pave Spike

A TV video tracker/laser target designator pod, used on non-TISEO aircraft. It was normally loaded on the left forward AIM-7 missile station, thus saving a wing station for munitions. It wasn't much bigger than the missile it excluded.

Pave Tack

An absolutely huge TV tracker/laser designator pod which had the capability to send live video ( of the battle scene "over the hill" ) directly to ground commanders. Pave Tack was originally used with larger F-111 aircraft, then migrated to the more moderately-sized F-4.

PAVEWAY

The original laser-guided "smart" bomb, used extensively in Vietnam as early as 1967. Back then, the laser illuminators were so large that they were installed in C-119 and C-47 cargo planes orbitting the battle area. Though it isn't widely known, they were maintained by WCS troops, some of whom flew many missions in the cargo craft, tweaking the delicate laser; one I know, recieved a Purple Heart while so engaged.

Pickle Button

A thumb-actuated "bomb" button, located on the aircraft control stick.

Pipper

The central aiming point on the sight Reticle; the pilot positions the plane so that this point is on the air or ground target. In guns/rockets, he would then pull the trigger; in bombing modes, he would actuate the Pickle button, thus informing the bombing computer of the target's location. See CCIP, Dive Toss and Offset Bomb modes.

PPI

"Plan Position Indicator" - the ground-mapping mode of a fighter's radar. This is the type of radar presentation most folks are used to seeing depicted on TV weather reports and in movies. The difference is that a fighter's radar sweeps back-and-forth in front of the jet, painting a pie-wedge-shaped sector, instead of a 360 degree circle. Most of the time, however, fighters use a "MAP - B" display which gives precise angular positioning of targets. Except for the F-105G ( which had no B-Scan ) target lockon-and-track isn't possible in PPI.

SONYs

A standard consumer-electronics 5-in. SONY B&W Television, mounted in the rear cockpit, upside-down, just above the GIB's right knee. The TV-station tuner had been removed, the picture tube rotated 180 degrees ( so as to present a normal picture when mounted wrong-side up ), and all of the internal connections coated to prevent arcing at high altitude. Weapon video was obtained from a test jack on the radar set's Indicator Control Unit. This was a marked improvement for displaying GBU-35/37 (HOBO TV glide bomb ) video; when displayed on the old radar scopes, weapon video was a green, smearing mess. ( Much like the live videos from first manned lunar landing.)
Bitburg's 36 TFW used this under-$100 video solution - but they were later removed when it was found they could interfere with the GIB's safe ejection: his knee would hit it, on the way out...

TISEO

Target Interception System, Electro-Optical. A small, telescopic TV camera mounted in the left wing, a few feet to the left of the radar boreline. The camera was slaved to the radar antenna's "look angle". ( Each cockpit's view was independent of the other; one could look at a TV close-up of the target, while the other watched the target on radar. TISEO could visually acquire a lockon, and slave the radar antenna to the TV, as well. ( An early "Stealth" mode of attack; the tracking radar could be placed in standby - not transmitting anything that could be picked up as a threat - while the missile-guidance transmitter painted the target.) This system was designed to overcome idiotic "see before you shoot" rules-of-engagement in place during the Vietnam War, which gave unnecessary advantage to the enemy.

Offset Bomb

A relatively high-altitude straight-and-level "blind" bombing mode using the mapping PPI mode of the radar, effective against targets whose geographic position is known. The crew can crank in an offset distance to the target ( N/S; E/W ) from a landmark visible on the radar. By positioning the intersection of two cursors over the radar landmark, the crew can then tell the ASQ-91 to display the "invisible" target's location on the screen, and provide steering info to it. Once the pickle button is pushed, the computer releases the bomb(s) at the position appropriate for destroying the target.

Reticle

The combination missile/bomb/gunsight, generated ( focused at infinity ) in front of the pilot's face, usually on a HUD sight system. Most move around on the glass after lockon to the target, indicating predicted path of the munitions. The large red icon at the top of each page here is a replica of the reticle used on the F-4E. It provided ranging, roll, and steering information to the target. F-4G Wild Weasels added a second ( green ) reticle, which showed the location of threatening SAM sites; when the two matched, a dumb bomb release would destroy the transmitter.

VICTOR Alert

The quick response-time special weapon alert aircraft. 'Nuff said.

ZULU Alert

The quick response-time Air Defense Alert aircraft, all of which had a full complement of air-to-air weapons loaded and cocked at all times. The Zulu "barn" was almost always just off the end of the runway, and crews ( including the ground-based crew chiefs required to launch the jets ) lived there while on assignment. Each had cooking/sleeping arrangements - and the same sort of brass "fireman's" pole so often used in civilian fire departments. When the klaxon went off, the crews jumped out of the rack, directly into g-suit harnesses, and down the pole. The crew chief had already pulled all of the safety pins and downlocks; the crew sprinted into the cockpits, started engines, and were airborne, most often in less than two minutes.