MiG-23's are doom (or how I saw the need for phoenix)

Hi guys,

I just been toying with a couple of MiG-23s in the Nevada Constant Peg gen III instant action mission. They are… Kicking my sorry butt. Again. And again. Jester is far too slow locking them up, and I quickly run out of energy going defensive vs the two ship.

Now I also built a little training scenario not unlike that one, though the start distance is a little greater and the kitty is armed with phoenix big sticks. Somehow I haven’t found out how to get jester to fire them. Am I missing something? Strangely I have no issue at all downing phantoms. I guess sparrow is more easily trashed than Apex.

There’s no training mission for the long range BVR stuff I saw, only fox two and gunsgunsguns.

Help me Obi Wan Ke-forum, you are my only hope!

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With the weapon selector in the PH/SP position, press down the selector to swap between phoenixes and sparrows. If you put the hud to AA mode, you can see PH6 (or however many phoenixes you brought) printed on the HUD. If jester has a lock, you can fire them. If you take the shot in STT, remember to tell jester to put it on PDSTT in order to allow datalinking with your missiles.

It might take a few seconds for the phoenix to come of the rail.

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Can’t help with getting jester to fire them, but like stated above, you just select them and then hold the trigger down for a couple seconds and it bumps off the rail.

If I’m not mistaken, jester defaults into auto TWS. This means that as long as the contact is showing up on the TID, you can fire within range.

Pretty sure I heard that as well.
The radar should automatically go into the necessary mode when the AIM-54 is fired.

So left stick hat sideways, press and hold trigger and pray…

Yup, that worked. Put the bad guys on the defensive too, they were sh*tting their pants with a buffalo inbound. Pwned the lot of them. What a bird.

Now I don’t yet see me winning the instant action scenario, 1v2 against apex slinging floggers while armed with only sparrows.

Sparrow > Apex all other things being equal.

Granted 2 v 1 is NOT equal. :slight_smile: Do some chaff/flare and pull some good g’s and you should be able to get past them, though. Remember 2 Floggers are still only 4 Apex to worry about. A flogger isn’t the missile carrier a Flanker is.

Actually, it’s a 3v1 scenario. Fishbed and two Flogger. The trick is to immediately go to a boresight radar mode (it’s a selector switch near the throttle) and try to pick one of the Floggers up. Get a Sparrow off – doesn’t have to be a good shot, just a shot. This will force them to go defensive and quit spamming Apexes at you, allowing you to close the distance and go for a kill shot.

Im coming in late on this. Last weekend I fell in love w the Kitty. That thing was made for fighting. I haven’t tried any BVR yet so this thread helps.

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Your recent experience with a heavyset warbird perfectly prepared you for the mighty turkeybird.

I think a lot of people underestimate the -23 as a warbird because of the proficiency of the client states’ air arms that used them and because it was the Soviets’ first effort at BVR combat capability. In the hands of a well-trained pilot, it was a very dangerous adversary. The sucker was fast on the deck; if you missed him on the first pass, you had a lot of catching up to do. Yeah, it took a country mile to turn that beast, but it was meant to be a counterpart to the Lightning, a point-defense interceptor carrying radar-guided missiles. It had acceleration like a Texas jackrabbit suffering from a sugar rush.

Tremendous engine, low weight, swept wings. Literally the one of the fastest things the Soviets had at the time.

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I remember the part of the book “Red Eagles” when they tested it and noticed that the engine was stronger than the airframe could take.
And also how they were disappointed by its ability to turn but shocked by its acceleration.

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Thanks to you guys, I managed to fire a couple of Phoenix’s last night. I put the FC3 Eagle mission and replace the Eagle with the Kitty. Started out fumbling and mumbling bad stuff under my breath. Should not have merged but I did. Managed to avoid the escorts and killed a Tu right away. Then a Flogger was just Beyond visual but I picked him up with VLS Lo and made him eat a Phoenix. They look so cool flying throgh the air! Went after the Second Flogger with guns but finished him off with a heater. Now the second bomber was trying to get away. I was out of the big boys but I had a Aim 7 and I knocked him out. Then suddenly I exploded in a glorious fireball… (The new flames look cool)… WTF? Oh yeah, I forgot that its one of them missions where adversaries keep showing up… A pair of Fulcrums turned me into a flaming ball of fire. Maybe tonight I will save some heat for them. Jester is cool. He is not perfect but he an assett in that rear cockpit. Im liking the Tomcat.

I have had a ball w the Cat! Its an incredible aircraft full of Star Wars like tech. Its good from afar and within the bowl. The instruments and HUD may have been futuristic in the 70s but they show their age compared with modern birds. Nonetheless I am having a great time w it. Can’t wait to see what the “A” is all about. Woohoo!

Yup! I’ve ridden a few fat fast birds in my time.

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Double-awesome! Was on a long, lonely, road out in the desert the first year those came out. I on
my lowly R-1 (last carb one) and my buddy on one of these. at about 155 mph aerodynamics (and horse power) found me sucking wind behind him. Man, that thing was fast*.

*Before they put the ‘governor’ on them. Do they still do that?

Yep. Limited to 186mph. Unless you get thr little black box fitted that tricks it into thinking its in 5th gear all the time.

There are a lot faster bikes now but I love the stability of the Buss-a

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Another worthy adversary is the SU-17… I am finding myself pit to pit with this beast. I have them set as bombers w 2 a2a missiles for defense!!! The go insane and offensive. Lots of fun.