The Art of Strafing By Richard B.H. Lewis ODERN fighter pilots risk their lives Mevery day performing the act of strafing, which to some may seem like a tactic from a bygone era. Last Novem- ber, an F-16 pilot, Maj. Troy L. Gilbert, died strafing the enemy in Iraq, trying Painting by Robert Bailey to protect coalition forces taking fire on the ground. My first thought was, “Why was an F-16 doing that mission?” But I already knew the answer. In the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War, I was combat-ready in the 512th Fighter Squadron, an F-16 unit at Ramstein AB, Germany. We had to maintain combat status in air-to- air, air-to-ground, and nuclear strike operations. We practiced strafing oc- casionally. We were not very good at it, but it was extremely challenging. There is a big difference between was “Gott strafe England” (“God punish flight controls and a 30 mm Gatling flying at 25,000 feet where you have England”). The term caught on. gun. I have seen the aircraft return from plenty of room to maneuver and you In the World War I Battle of St. Mihiel, combat with one engine and major parts can barely see a target, and at 200 feet, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker once strafed of a wing and flight controls blown off. where the ground is rushing right below eight German artillery pieces, each Unquestionably, the A-10 is the ultimate you and you can read the billboards drawn by a team of six horses. Horses strafing machine. screaming by. and wagons scattered everywhere, the Strafing in other fighter aircraft, The only aircraft required to strafe great pilot later recounted. The physical though done more and more often, is in the Cold War was the A-10, and for damage was not great, but the disruption extremely dangerous. To be effective good reason. It was the only aircraft of the horse train worked. on the battlefield, a pilot must be able built to endure the hazards of strafing Among World War II strafing aircraft, to perform low-altitude passes in the against Warsaw Pact forces. We have few if any were more effective than face of the enemy. Each party is blazing all seen aircraft in the movies, diving at the American B-25 Mitchell bomber. away at the other. In fighter aircraft other the ground, guns blazing, while people In the Pacific, it was used frequently than the A-10, the pilot must make very on the ground are running to take cover. on treetop-level missions against Japa- low passes if he is to deliver accurate That’s not how it really is. Once the nese airfields and shipping, with great fire from the gun. Doing this, though fighter enters the low-altitude environ- impact. In both World War II and the it might sound easy, requires intense ment, the pilot is subject to multiple Korean War, 12.7 mm guns were the concentration. This is critical if the pilot threats; he faces not only surface-to-air real workhorses. The 20 mm gun has is to avoid flying through the up-thrown missiles and anti-aircraft artillery but been the weapon of choice for most debris from exploding targets or flying also handheld heat-seeking missiles and US fighters over the past 50 years. Its into ground objects. automatic gunfire. key attributes have been its high rates For most fighter pilots, strafing well In “No Man’s Land”—that is, below of fire and muzzle velocity. in combat is no simple task. Holding 5,000 feet—the chances of being hit go During the Vietnam War, we lost large wings level while tracking a target for up astronomically. However, for many numbers of aircraft, many as a result more than 10 seconds is considered aircraft, the limitations of the gun require of getting down low and in the range too predictable for enemy fire. One the pilot to fly lower, below 1,000 feet, of lethal fire. This made it a priority to has to visualize the point in the bat- if he or she hopes to consistently hit the build a ground attack aircraft dedicated tlespace where one needs to be to start target. When you get down that low, bad to close air support. the strafing pass, and yet still maintain things can happen. The design of the A-10 is unlike awareness of the target’s location. This The Pentagon defines strafing simply any other aircraft. It was built with un- dual task can best be carried out using a as “the delivery of automatic weapons fire paralleled emphasis on simplicity and five- to 15-degree dive angle. Altitude, by aircraft on ground targets.” The term survivability. For instance, it features a airspeed, and wind direction must also itself has an interesting pedigree. It is titanium “bathtub” to protect the pilot be considered. derived from the German word “strafen,” from direct hits from armor-piercing and Imagine yourself flying down a large meaning, “to punish.” In World War I, high-explosive projectiles in sizes up to funnel that ends at the target. One finds a popular German Army catch phrase 23 mm. Beyond that, it has redundant lots of room to maneuver at the top of 54 AIR FORCE Magazine / July 2007 the funnel; you can do that and still hit The same thing happened in Balad, debate about whether we should take out the target. However, at the bottom of the where we found people going to get that gun. I’m glad we didn’t, because, in funnel, you run out of maneuver room. roadside bomb supplies. We have been combat trials, we have already had gun One needs to place the aircraft’s aiming using the gun against single persons who kills. The gun was required to complete symbology short of the target such that have been planting improvised exposive the mission. it drifts up to the target as the gun comes devices. You’ll have an individual with a Even so, the F-22, like all other within firing range. It is difficult to keep truck, and a couple of other individuals; fighters, can strafe when it has to. And the gun sight on the target for more than you’ll see them get out and move around, it will probably have to. Few would two seconds while flying at 552 mph. trying to dig a hole, and you’ll bring in have thought, 20 years ago, that the One can’t just stare, zombie-like, at the an F-16 or an F-15E, or maybe an A-10, F-15E would one day play the role target. This causes target fixation, which and you’ll use 20 or 30 mm and go kill of classic strafing machine. Yet the can become a fatal experience. them. If you have troops in contact, or Strike Eagle did a great job strafing We know from Gilbert’s death what you have individuals in buildings, you al Qaeda fighters during the March Painting by Robert Bailey such concentration can cause. (See do the same thing. 2002 battle on Takur Ghar, one of the “Aerospace World: F-16 Pilot Awarded Some pilots are expanding the strafing main engagements of Anaconda. Of the DFC,” June, p. 14.) The official envelope, so to speak. Earlier this year, course, it should be noted that the F- accident report blamed the accident the Secretary of the Air Force, Michael 15E pilot had long, deep experience on Gilbert’s “channelized attention,” W. Wynne, told this story: “About a year flying the A-10. which was “manifested by his desire ago, our F-15 airmen were thinking about The F-35 Lightning II fighter, which to maintain a constant visual positive how they could execute night strafing. is set to enter service in 2013, has a identification of targeted enemy ve- It seemed hard, maybe undoable. Last special gun, better for strafing ground hicles, and subsequent target fixation month, I learned it was being done in targets than the gun found in the F-22. on these vehicles.” These circum- daily ops in the fight. ... Actually, it is The F-35 is specifically designed to stances, the report went on, caused the now called easy.” The F-15 community have the sensors and weapons needed F-16 pilot “to begin and then press his had programmed F-15 simulators at to support ground operations. It will attack below a recoverable altitude.” Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., where go deep, but it will also thrive in On Gilbert’s second strafing pass, he CAS engagements. Its gun will carry came in at an extremely low altitude “Enemy troops 75 meters special shells powerful enough to and simply could not recover. He flew penetrate armored targets, unlike the the airplane into the ground. away. ... I need guns only!” F-22, whose gun ammo is specially Then there is the risk of being brought designed to blow up an airplane. The down by the “Golden BB”—the single, F-35’s gun will be a weapon of last lucky but lethal shot that finds its mark. you could, through practice, work a resort, though, because of the extreme That risk exists for virtually any fighter night strafe from “hard” to “easy” in a vulnerability of the pilot during a whose cockpit can be easily penetrated matter of months. strafing mission. by ground fire. That is why, after the A-10s probably will be here until they With the advent of small, low-col- pilot has strafed the target, he pulls up fall out of the sky, but can they always lateral-damage weapons, the tactic of hard.