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Comment by funstuff007 | Hacker News Reader

Didn't Maverick pull this off in Top Gun?

In Top Gun 2, he uses it twice. Once, during the training dogfight where Rooster has a chance to shoot him down (he says, "Too late, you had your chance" and then pulls off the maneuver, targeting Rooster instead afterwards). After the training dogfight, he is told by Cyclone, "...and I don't ever want to see that Cobra shit again. That could have gotten you both killed".

The second time was towards the end when they're fending off the SAM attacks -- Rooster is in trouble with no flares to launch, and Maverick simultaneously pulls off a Cobra Maneuver while launching his own set of flairs, resulting in his own aircraft being hit.

Top Gun 2 is really a fantastic movie but for anybody skipping the film here's the clips:

First time: https://youtu.be/zlWmeo-4ulw?t=72

Second time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwBwJiyQ_g

Tom Cruise is kind of a weirdo but his films are incredibly entertaining.

The film is ... filmed in/with real aircraft too. Obviously there are stand in effects when they're exploding missiles, but the in-cockpit shots are all practical "effects" of the actors sitting in second seat. Real canopies, real g-forces, etc. Pretty cool!

> flares

Which do nothing for radar-guided SAMs... but pumping out chaff wouldn't be very visually impressive (if you could see it at all).

And of course, the strike package would have been accompanied by the EA-18G Growler to jam SAM radar.

> And of course, the strike package would have been accompanied by the EA-18G Growler to jam SAM radar.

Well it should have been preceded by a Wild Weasel mission to take out the SAM radars and launchers. The Growler mission would just be extra SAM defense. There also should have been a counter-air element to deal with the enemy fighters flying CAP.

There was enough intelligence available for the mission every fixed SAM site should have eaten a couple Tomahawks in addition to the airfield. It's also a mystery why the whole facility wasn't just leveled by some B-2s loaded with GBU-37s.

There would have been fewer dog fights but that probably would have been ok.

Good point about the B-2. Does the Navy even perform Wild Weasel? That's usually the F-16's job and we can only "assume" that it was out of range of any USAF or collation airbase.

Of course, the country in question would have to be Iran due to the F-14... though the Felon hasn't been shipped outside (or inside of...heh) Russia.

And of course we come back to 'it's a movie' :-)

I don't think the Navy calls their SEAD Wild Weasel. Their SEAD missions are similar to the Air Force's Wild Weasel missions but without the naming. They're both SEAD and use similar tactics and weapons.

But the movie's mission not including any SEAD was 100% suspenders of disbelief. The whole mission seemed to be planned by people that were the pilots' life insurance beneficiaries.

Spoilers?

In Top Gun 1 he did something like it twice in an F-14 against the MiGs: "I'm gonna hit the brakes, he'll fly right by". Once in the first dogfight and then again in the last one.

Yeah so you know it is just as believable maneuver as crane kick from Karate Kid :)

He did a manual wing sweep on the Tomcat to pull up and force an overshoot of the Sukhoi. Growling Sidewinder on youtube says that is a Cobra.

I wasn't there, but IIRC it was a 5th gen fighter against Maverick and Rooster in an F-14 that pulled this off. Unfortunately for the 5th gen pilot it later came down to the pilot, not the plane, and he became splash 2.

I think that was actually something called the Kvochur bell, not the cobra.

So. He does the “deceleration by using the F-14 variable wing sweep” twice - once in Top Gun and once in Top Gun: Maverick. He also does an actual “high angle of attack” cobra on an F-18 in TG: M.

Also a common maneuver in Ace Combat, speaking about fictional uses.

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