First edition of the virtual Red Flag has seen another great online battle that gathered some of the best virtual pilots in the DCS community. Much like the first event of the series, RF1 was about 104th and 51st pilots teaming up as the Aggressor team to stand in the way of a coalition force made of independent pilots as well as members of other DCS squadrons like the 77th Savage, the Ukrainian Virtual Air Force, the 71st, the 57th and The Art of Warfare. This edition has also seen the first participation of the pilots from the Belarusian Wings wearing the =BK= tag.
Despite being outnumbered more than two-to-one , 104th and 51st pilots emerged victorious, proving once again their status as DCS powerhouses when it comes to air-to-air combat. Opposition put up a good fight, especially in the air-to-ground arena where strikers scored a lot of points, but this proved to be insufficient as they widely lost the air battle conceding 17 aircrafts of their own.
BattleFacts attempts to shed more light on what really stood out in this first round of the Red Flag series.
- Spade from the 104th achieved a new personal best with the top air-to-air performance after shooting down 4 enemy fighters and reaching the second place in the pilot air-to-air rankings.
- Current leading fighter pilot Maverick continues to impress as he managed to pull off yet another great performance, claiming 4 kills. The Scottish ace is therefore prolonging his reign over the air-to-air rankings and is in a good spot to hit the 8 month milestone as DCS number one fighter pilot after the next Red Flag event also planned to run in May.
- ‘Black Eagles’ were behind all leading 5 air-to-air performances as out of the 17 kills achieved by aggressor pilots, 13 were by 104th pilots. For the first time, Top 3 pilots in the air-to-air rankings are all from the 104th Phoenix.
- GregOzby from UVAF was the only Flanker pilot who managed to survive the battle while making at least one kill.
- Out of the 25 aerial kills, none was by an R-27ER missile, 4 by R-27ET, 1 by R-73, 2 by cannon and 18 by AIM-120.
- Longest BVR kill was achieved by Spade from 20nm away by an AIM-120C
- Dogfight of the battle opposed Spade to Plaiskool with Spade coming out on top; Plaiskool managed a brilliant reversal trying to make his opponent overshoot but Spade made the most of a split of a second firing opportunity.
- After a stellar performance in the previous event, Doktormarg from the Savage S77th squadron continues his run of form by claiming another aerial kill while surviving the grueling three-hour air battle. Fellow squadron pilot Gabriel achieved the same performance. Doktormarg has gained one place advancing to #6 in the rankings while Gabriel made first appearance at the 25th spot.
- With 3 kills under the belt, Stuge has unquestionably earned the title of the best performing cadet pilot of the event and has taken now the 15th spot in the rankings.
Another noteworthy performance came from Panthir, who seems to have recently joined The Art of Warfare squadron. Flying high above the competition, Panthir started off in a solid fashion catching two aggressor pilots off guard and was close to claim a third kill before getting shot down. The 200 SA points that he earned have booked him the 28th spot in the rankings. - The Air-to-ground arena was dominated by Honos from the 71st squadron, Ariel from the 57th and Omny from DW squadron. All combined, the 3 pilots destroyed 18 ground targets and are respectively holding the first, second and third position in the air-to-ground rankings.
