Reviewer’s system specs: CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core, M-Board: MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WIFI, RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64GB (2×32GB) 3200MHz, GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio 10GB, HOTAS: – Virpil T-50CM2
Angry red tracers strobe past the cockpit as I pull the Tomcat into a wide barrel roll. The MiG on my six tries to follow the move as we corkscrew towards the ground at over 800kph, 23mm cannon fire again cuts through the air where I had been just milliseconds before. Looking back over my shoulder I can see the MiG, a Flogger is closing, it’s diving slightly faster than I am.
I slam the stick hard over reversing my roll while kicking down on the rudder, the move pushes the MiG out over my right wing right as I pull the throttle back to zero and trigger the air brake. Almost instantly the big Tomcat slows down while the MiG, slower to react overshoots. Stabbing the weapons selection pip, I select Sidewinders and am immediately greeted with the deep growl of a missile lock. Thumbing the firing stud, the AIM-9H Sidewinder leaps off the rail and crosses the few hundred meters between the MiG and I in less than a second. The once mighty Russian warplane reduced to burning scrap falling the few hundred meters left to the ground below.
That whole engagement current top tier jet combat in a nutshell – every choice you make matters but the time you have to make those choices and react is measured in seconds or less, though I may be getting ahead of myself.
