Author: Eagle Owl
Military fans may have heard of an air combat blockbuster filmed in the 1980s, although it has a history of 35 years, but the Hollywood-style bloody style, addictive air combat scenes and passionate music have made it an unsurpassed "air combat film benchmark" that has not been surpassed. This movie is "Top Gun" (English name: TOPGUN).
The TOPGUN School that appears in the film, the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School, has attracted the attention of many people. In the film, it gathers almost all of the elite naval aviation pilots in the United States, including the most demanding and reliable flight instructors, and of course, beautiful female analysts. However, movies are just movies, and artistic processing often whitewashes reality, so what is the real TOPGUN like? It all started decades ago...
Stills from Top Gun
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > the original TOPGUN</h1>
On March 2, 1965, the U.S. military brazenly launched Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam, carrying out a long period of high-intensity bombing of North Vietnam, which lasted until November 2, 1968. In the largest air raid operation during the Cold War, the United States lost nearly 1,000 military aircraft of various types, including the most advanced fighters such as the F-4, which made the U.S. military less satisfied.
In 1968, U.S. Admiral Moore, then U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, ordered research into the reasons for such a huge loss. Soon, a document called the Ault Report was delivered to his desk. In this report, Captain Ault, who is in charge of studying the matter, clearly pointed out that the huge losses of U.S. fighters are due to the lack of air combat training of U.S. pilots, heavy reliance on air-to-air missile operations, and inability to respond effectively to hostile MiG fighters that suddenly appear in the rear.
At Ault's suggestion, the "Advanced Flight School" dedicated to the training of pilots' combat skills was officially established at Miramar Naval Air Station in California, which later became the "U.S. Naval Fighter Weapons School", and because of its special positioning, it was more commonly known as "TOPGUN" by naval pilots.
Miramar Naval Air Station
In order to improve the tactical literacy of the trainees as much as possible, the school gathered the best air combat instructors the U.S. Navy could find, such as the experienced F-4 fighter pilots Darrell Gary, John Nash, and so on. Thanks to the efforts of these air combat experts, the first batch of TOPGUN graduates soon returned to the Vietnamese front. Interestingly, they were very resistant to the new school at first, but when they returned to Vietnam, the kill ratio of U.S. Naval Aviation to North Vietnamese Air Force fighter jets soared from 2.42:1 to 12.5:1.
In contrast, the U.S. Air Force did not conduct similar training, and fighter pilots were worse killed than before. Through the Vietnam War, TOPGUN became famous in World War I and became the "temple" of all naval fighter pilots.
Air combat in the Vietnam War
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="60" > true TOPGUN</h1>
At the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, the TOPGUN was further expanded and upgraded, and the fighter was replaced by the more advanced F-14 Tomcat, while the F-5 fighter, which played the hypothetical enemy fever, was a lighter, faster, and more suitable for imitating MiG fighters. It is worth mentioning that in the movie, the "MiG-28" fighter is also played by the U.S. Navy's F-5 fighter. This period is also the most widely known through movies, the most brilliant period of topgun school.
TOPGUN school students conduct formation flight training
What needs to be clear is that Charlie, the analyst who fell in love with Atango in the movie, does have a realistic archetype. Baranek, a former U.S. Navy officer who taught at TOPGUN School in the 1980s and participated in the filming of Top Gun, said that there were many civilian analysts from major universities and scientific research organizations at TOPGUN School at that time, including Kristen Fox, who was one of the most popular female analysts in the base and the prototype of Charlie's character in the movie.
But Baranek pointed out that it is not allowed for analysts to fall in love with pilots, because pilots will only stay here for a short time (5 weeks) to return to the original unit, and the analysts and pilots will only have negative effects if they get too close.
He also pointed out that at that time, the U.S. Naval Aviation and miG fighters did have a lot of "abnormal contact." In the 1980s, the U.S. Navy's F-14 fighter jets were in frequent contact and friction with the Soviet Air Force deployed in Libya. However, at that time, everyone was self-conscious and showed more restraint, and interception operations often became normal escort operations.
Sometimes, Soviet pilots would show American pilots through the cabin glass the Pepsi bottles they had privately obtained. However, if it is like the case with Atango provoking the Soviet pilots at the beginning of the movie, the two sides are likely to fight each other. Therefore, it is no wonder that Brother Tang's superiors have made a big fuss about this.
At the same time, he also said that the "mutual support" shown in the air combat scenes later in the film was actually wrong. Although the U.S. Naval Aviation has a saying called "never leave your wingman", if one fighter is in trouble during a battle, the other aircraft should help if allowed.
The TOPGUN school imitates the MiG's F-14
However, mutual support does not mean that long-term and wingmen should fly in formation for long periods of time. In fact, two aircraft flying in formation in the same airspace would be more easily targeted and attacked by enemy fighter jets. However, as a film work, "Top Gun" naturally needs some dramatic expression, so it does not use real wingman coordination tactics.
Baranek admits that from his perspective as an air force flight instructor, a series of tactical details in Top Gun can be said to be very ridiculous. If this is a real battle, then Atang Ge is likely to be shot down on the spot. But he also admitted that with the full support of the U.S. Navy, the film was qualified, and even very good, especially after the real TOPGUN instructors gave in-depth guidance to the crew, the effect was unprecedented.
An F-14 fighter painted as an Iranian fighter
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="61" > today's TOPGUN</h1>
However, topgun's glory did not last long. In 1996, TOPGUN was merged into the U.S. Naval Strike and Air Combat Center and moved from Miramar Naval Air Station to Fallon Training Base in Nevada, which made TOPGUN lose its long-standing independence, and to the outside world, TOPGUN seemed to be "annexed".
However, despite losing its long-standing independent status, TOPGUN itself still exists. TOPGUN now offers three attack fighter tactical coaching sessions each year, each lasting nine weeks, which is a full 4 weeks more than in the 1980s. TopGUN also had more money and resources, and fighters were replaced by more advanced F/A-18E/F, F-35C, and F-16 (as hypothetical enemies).
At the same time, TOPGUN has also opened more training courses, such as training for E-2D AWACS pilots, academic courses for ground personnel, fully formed flight training for aircraft carrier aviation wings, and so on.
The F-16 fighter jet used by topgun school
It is worth mentioning that the last F-14 fighter aircraft belonging to TOPGUN was officially retired in October 2003 after completing all course tasks. Although "Tomcat" is old, the spirit of courage and courage represented by TOPGUN itself will always exist. Although it is not as high-profile as it once was, it is still one of the best naval fighter pilot training institutions in the world.