This mission took place late in 1979. I was flying with a first tour RIO known as Drifty. A good scope. Our mission was to shoot an AIM-7 Sparrow on a
"test and evaluation" (T&E) profile. We were armed with two live AIM-7Es and two live AIM-9s in case the Sparrows failed or missed. Test
parameters or this shot required that we and the target both fly supersonic and also required us to launch at a specific range and approach angle to the
target. Instead of an explosive warhead, the Sparrow was armed with a telemetry package sending information to engineers on the ground. We would approach the
target about twice as fast as on most training intercepts, so I had to closely watch the radar and carefully control the run. The fact that Drifty was a first
tour didn't help. This was his first live shot although he had been doing practice approaches for a while. Normally I would just listen and follow his
directions, my job was simple, put the RIO in position to get the kill. Today, I'd have my hands full teaching and flying. Things happen a lot faster at
Mach 1.1 IMN than they do at Mach .5 or .6 IMN (indicated mach number).
The practice area was about 100 nautical miles east of Norfolk over the Atlantic Ocean. An A-6 launched the drone, an AQM-37 about 100 nautical miles north of our position and made a hard 180 to clear the area. The drone was flying on a southerly heading at a little more than Mach 1. We turned north at our controllers instruction. At about 80 nm Drifty called contact with the target. I was watching on the radar repeater up front, so I knew where the target was. He called a turn for the approach. Things were happening fast. A couple of small overshoots and we had the target locked up. Then he called the launch. This is when things get dicey with the AIM-7. It has to have radar energy reflected from the target at all times to home in on. Our radar illuminator has to paint the target to provide that radar energy. If we break radar lock, the AIM-7 goes stupid. I saw the target beginning to drift to the left of the scope. A nudge on the rudder stopped the target drift and then - nothing. The target was gone and so was the missile!
Drify started to worry. He was sure we lost radar lock on the target and would have to reacquire it and shoot it down with the backup missile. I said, "No Drifty, you just got a hard kill, the missile and the drone merged." It was time to recover. The taxpayers had just gotten the return on millions invested in training and hardware. We proved once again, we could do what they needed us to do to keep them safe and preserve the peace.
The practice area was about 100 nautical miles east of Norfolk over the Atlantic Ocean. An A-6 launched the drone, an AQM-37 about 100 nautical miles north of our position and made a hard 180 to clear the area. The drone was flying on a southerly heading at a little more than Mach 1. We turned north at our controllers instruction. At about 80 nm Drifty called contact with the target. I was watching on the radar repeater up front, so I knew where the target was. He called a turn for the approach. Things were happening fast. A couple of small overshoots and we had the target locked up. Then he called the launch. This is when things get dicey with the AIM-7. It has to have radar energy reflected from the target at all times to home in on. Our radar illuminator has to paint the target to provide that radar energy. If we break radar lock, the AIM-7 goes stupid. I saw the target beginning to drift to the left of the scope. A nudge on the rudder stopped the target drift and then - nothing. The target was gone and so was the missile!
Drify started to worry. He was sure we lost radar lock on the target and would have to reacquire it and shoot it down with the backup missile. I said, "No Drifty, you just got a hard kill, the missile and the drone merged." It was time to recover. The taxpayers had just gotten the return on millions invested in training and hardware. We proved once again, we could do what they needed us to do to keep them safe and preserve the peace.
