Brevity List
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Calling out a contact
Perhaps the single most useful line of all brevity is to let other people know where possible enemies are, in a short and concise manner. Thus we use the format contact (bandit if confirmed hostile), <relative point (you, friendly unit, bullseye)>, <BRA(A)>.
- 1. Contact / bandit
- Contact is typically used if the contact is not yet confirmed hostile, bandit is used when contact is confirmed hostile (either via flight or via AWACS / GCI radar control)
- 2. Type
- If you know aircraft type, feel free to add that to the call out as well
- 3. Relative point
- This is a common point for everyone in the flight to understand; you can use yourself, some other friendly unit (preferably in your flight), a recognizable landmark or the Bullseye (the common point for one side)
- 3. <BRA(A)>
- A mnemonic device for remembering Bearing, Range, Altitude, Aspect to give when calling out target information
So if I have an enemy SU-27 Flanker bearing 270 degrees at 9000 feet and 30 nautical miles away, coming in hot from me, I would call this out to my flight (members) as
'bandit, from me, SU-27, BRA(A) 270 at 9000 for 30, hot'
Equally, I could call out what I think is a unknown plane bearing 120 degrees at 3000 and 50 nautical miles away, going away from my flight lead, as
'contact, from flight lead, unknown, BRA(A) 120 at 3000 for 50, cold'
The BRA(A) is typically said in the call out as well for everyone to remember the format used (it becomes a bit of a Pavlovian reaction, really).
Basic Brevity
This is the most frequently used brevity, and as such would be wise to know from heart or at least have it somewhere as a print-out so you can easily reference it.
| Basic Jargon | |
|---|---|
| Brevity | Meaning |
| AOA | Angle of Attack, angle between wind hitting your plane and the root of (centerline through) your wings |
| AGL | Above Ground Level, obtained from radar altimeter. Moves with ground, such as going over a mountain |
| Aspect (hot / cold / flanking) | This denotes the attitude of a contact respective to you: hot means he has got his nose on you (and is closing fast), cold means he has his tail on you (nose away, he is trying to run) and flanking means he is heading pure left or right from you |
| ASL | Above Sea Level, requires you to know altimeter pressure setting for the barometric altimeter readout |
| Abort (abort abort) | Cease action / attack / event / mission |
| Bingo | Minimum fuel state needed for recovery to (air)base |
| BRA(A) | Bearing, Range, Altitude, Aspect format |
| Break left/right | Move immidiately in the indicated direction, usually to avoid a threat (ie an enemy fighter) |
| Bearing | Given direction on a compass, for example when spotting a target: contact bearing 190 (degrees) |
| Course | Actual direction of travel in degrees on compass; North 0°, East 90°, South 180°, West 270° |
| Heading | Where my aircraft is pointing on a compass, 0 being North, 90 being East, 180 being South, 270 being West |
| Check six | Look behind you |
| Combat Spread | Aircraft flying line abreast, with a decent amount of seperation to avoid all getting hit at once (100 - 300 feet) |
| Call out Contact | Unit detected (ie on your RWR), but not sure if friendly or enemy: call out <relative point (you, friendly unit, bullseye)>, <BRA(A)>, |
| Level flight | Not climbing or descending |
| Level wings | Not banking or rolling |
| Situational Awareness (SA) | Knowing what is going around you at all times: where are enemies, where are friendlies, is my six clear? |
| Stall | Due to extreme AOA, the maximum lift capability is exceeded, resulting in an abrupt loss of lift |
| Fence In/Out | Set cockpit switches for entering/exiting combat. Exterior lights off, master arm on, etc. |
| Weapons | |
| Bandit | Confirmed enemy plane |
| Buddy | Confirmed friendly plane |
| Buddy (spike) | Response to 'Raygun'; Friendly unit is actively locking on to me, |
| Ray Gun | Try to lock up a contact; if somone calls out buddy (spike) you are locking onto a friendly contact |
| Contact | Unknown if friendly or enemy plane; neutral until further notice |
| Fox # (short, medium, long) | Shooting a missile |
| Fox 1 | Semi active missile, homes onto reflected radar waves emitted from launch aircraft |
| Fox 2 | Heat seeking missile, homes in on engine heat from the targetted unit |
| Fox 3 | Active missile, first homes on reflected radar like semi-active, then activates its own small radar |
| Fox 4 / Guns, guns, guns | Firing guns |
| Nails (type) (o'clock) | RWR Air contact, ie Nails 21 9 o'clock means Mig-21 contact at your left |
| Merge(d) | You and hostile plane(s) are extremely close together: AWACS sees this as a single radar return melted together (merged) and they cannot tell you or them apart |
| Spike (type) (o'clock) | RWR Ground contact, ie Spike 15 3 o'clock means SA-15 contact at your right |
| Pickle | Dropping (un)guided bombs |
| Rifle | Firing an air-to-ground missile, such as a AGM-65 Maverick |
| Magnum | Launch of an anti-radition missile, such as an AGM-88 Harm, to kill a SAM site |
| Bruiser | Firing an anti-ship missile like Harpoon or RB-04. |
| Maddog | Launch of friendly active radar homing missile, such as the AIM-120, without radar guidance from the launch aircraft. The missile will rely on its own radar to find a target and will generally track the first target it sees. |
Carrier Brevity
Master Brevity List
This is the Master Brevity List, with all the various brevity / jargon (call outs) and their meaning in this table. Please do yourself a favour and do not manually search for things, but use the search function (CTRL+F) instead!
| Brevity | Meaning |
|---|---|
| (Number) o´clock | General direction relative to you, as on a clock face: 12 is ahead, 6 is rear, 3 & 9 are left & right |
| (Rate of) Closure | Relative rate of approaching aircraft, with respect to your own aircraft |
| (V)ID | Call to identify the target, (Visual) Identification |
| AAA | Anti-Aircraft Artillery |
| AAR | Air-to-Air Refueling |
| Abort (abort abort) | Cease action / attack / event / mission |
| ACM | Air Combat Maneuvring |
| Active | Missile that has its own on-board radar transmitter and receiver for targetting |
| AGL | Above Ground Level, obtained from radar altimeter. Moves with ground, such as going over a mountain |
| AGM | Air-to-Ground Missile |
| Alert 5 | Aircraft on carrier that are on five minute standby for launch, to provide rapid backup |
| AMRAAM | Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile |
| Anchor(ed) | Hold at current / indication position |
| Angels | Altitude in thousands (1000) of feet: Angels 21 is 21,000 feet |
| AOA | Angle Of Attack, the relation between the air hitting the plane and the direction of travel |
| ARM | Anti-Radiation missile |
| ASL | Above Sea Level, requires you to know altimeter pressure setting for the barometric altimeter readout |
| Asleep | Enemy SAM is not active and is not expecting friendly units |
| AWACS | Airborne Warning and Control System |
| Awake | Enemy SAM isactive and is expecting friendly units |
| Bandit | Confired enemy |
| BDA | Battle Damage Assesment, check to see what damage your weapons did |
| Bearing | Given direction on a compass, for example when spotting a target: contact bearing 123° |
| Bent | Broken item on the aircraft: 'The radar is bent' |
| BFM | Basic Fighter Maneuvring |
| Bingo | Minimum fuel state needed for recovery to (air)base |
| Bingo on the ball (aka Trick or Treat) | Aircraft is running out of fuel, so this will be last landing attempt, before diverting to a nearby airfield |
| Bittersweet / blue on blue | Friendly units (accidentally) engaging other friendly units |
| Blind | No (visual) contact on the target ( / friendly) unit |
| Bogey | Unidentified aircraft (could be hostile or friendly) |
| Bogey Dope | Request for target information to nearest (or specified) group, in BRAA |
| Bolter | Aircraft during carrier landing has failed to catch an arresting wire, thus needing to try and land again |
| BRA(A) | Bearing, Range, Altitude, (Aspect: Hot, Flanking or Cold) |
| BRC | Base Recovery Course |
| Break (direction) | Call to move in indicated direction, in a high G turn |
| Broken Arrow | Direct all nearby aircraft to the transmitter to provide emergency fire support, troops are being overrun |
| Buddy | Confirmed friendly |
| Buddy (spike) | Response to 'Raygun'; Friendly unit is actively locking on to me, |
| Bugout | Moving out in specified direction with no intent to reengage / return |
| BVR | Beyond Visual Range |
| CAP | Combat Air Patrol, (supporting other units in the area by) engaging hostiles in air-to-air |
| CAS | Close Air Support, (supporting other units in the area by) engaging ground targets |
| CBU | Cluster Bomb Unit (Mk-20 Rockeye, CBU-87, CBU-97) |
| CCZ | Carrier Controlled Zone |
| Cease (action) | Discontinue, stop (cease fire means stop shooting) |
| CG | Center of Gravity |
| Chaff | Counter measure against radar missiles, kind of similar to glitter on steroids |
| Check six | Look behind you |
| Cherubs | Altitude in hundreds (100) of feet: Cherubs 5 is 500 feet |
| Clara | Pilot has no visual on the 'meatball' or IFLOLS, used for glideslope when landing on a carrier |
| Cleared Hot | Ordinance release / attack is authorized |
| Cloak / lights off | Turn off lights so that only NVG lights are shown on the aircraft |
| Combat Spread | Aircraft flying line abreast, with a decent amount of seperation to avoid all getting hit at once (100 - 300 feet) |
| Commit | Intercept group of interest, begin the action |
| Contact | Unit detected at <relative point (you, bullseye, other)>, <BRA>, <hot / cold / flanking> |
| Contact | Detected unit |
| Course | Actual direction of travel in degrees on compass; North 0°, East 90°, South 180°, West 270° |
| Covey Launch | Simultaneous launch of multiple aircraft from the carrier |
| Cranking | Flanking the enemy whilst keeping them locked up in the gimbal edges of the radar |
| Danger close | Friendly units are in close proximity of the target and are likely to be in the splash zone of the weapon |
| Declare | Identify specified group or track(ed target) |
| Defensive / defending | Maneuvring to avoid threat (typically a missile) |
| Departing (the envelope) | Leaving / flying outside aircraft limits, aircraft has become uncontrollable |
| Drag | Any impedance to the aicraft's forward movement through the air |
| Ease Guns to Land | Pulling the throttles back on carrier landing (never do this) |
| ECM | Electronic Counter-Measures, to distort the (radar) signals / systems of the enemy |
| Engage | Commence attack, fire control order |
| EW | Electronic Warfare |
| Eyeball | Visual (EO) or infrared acquisition of a target |
| Faded | Radar contact is lost on previously acquired target |
| Feet dry | Over land |
| Feet wet | Over water |
| Fence | Set cockpit switches as appropriate before entering / exiting the combat area |
| Fence In | Entering enemy controlled airspace (during mission), set weapons hot |
| Fence Out | Leaving enemy airspace (during mission), weapons can be set to cold |
| Fireweall | Push the throttles all the way forward, for maximum engine power output |
| Flanking | Target is heading in a ± 45 degree angle, in a effort to crank / notch you |
| Flight | Group of airplanes in a tasking / mission |
| Flight Envelope | Performance limits of an aircraft |
| Flight Level (FL) | Identical to Angels; flight altitude in thousands (1000) of feet; FL 50 is 50 000 feet |
| Fox # (short, medium, long) | Shooting a missile |
| Fox 1 | Semi active missile, homes onto reflected radar waves emitted from launch aircraft |
| Fox 2 | Heat seeking missile, homes in on engine heat from the targetted unit |
| Fox 3 | Active missile, first homes on reflected radar like semi-active, then activates its own small radar |
| Fox 4 / Guns, guns, guns | Firing guns |
| Furball / clusterfuck | Indicating known friendly and non-friendly aircraft in close proximity, such as a dogfight |
| GBU | General purpose Bomb Unit (Mk-82, Mk-82, GBU-12 |
| GCI | Ground Controller Intercept |
| Gimbal (limit) | Limits on a sensor operating range, such as the radar or targetting pod |
| Group | Number of targets close together, typically heading in the same direction |
| Heading | Where my aircraft is pointing on a compass |
| Hold fire | Do not shoot, destroy already launched missiles / weapons |
| Hook | Cue sensor (targetting pod, radar) towards the directed target of interest |
| Hostile | Contact identified as enemy, with clearance to fire |
| Hot / cold | Hot means the contact has the nose pointed towards you, cold means he is going away from you |
| HOTAS | Hands On Throttle And Stick |
| HUD | Heads-Up Display |
| IFF | Identification Friend or Foe; determining if the target is hostile or friendly |
| IFR | Instrument Flight Rules: flying with your aircraft instruments in bad weather conditions |
| ILS | Instrument Landing System |
| IMC | InterMediate Conditions; bad weather |
| In the goo | In the clouds, limited visibility |
| JDAM | Joint Direct Attack Munition, typically GPS guided (GBU-31, GBU-38) |
| Jink(ing) | Unpredictable maneuvers to negate a tracking solution or lock |
| JSOW | Joint StandOff Weapon, glidebomb etc. (AGM-154) |
| Level flight | Not climbing or descending |
| Laser On | Call to begin laser illumination (Use this if your buddy is lasing for your munitions). |
| Lasing | You have begun laser illumination |
| Level wings | Not banking or rolling |
| Maddog | Active missile is launched where its radar is immediately turned on, engaging the first target it sees |
| Magnum | Anti-radiation missile launch |
| Mark your father / mom | Give position relative to the carrier: aircraft number, bearing and range |
| Marking | Contrailing (smoking) / In contrailing altitude: typically > 25,000 and < 40,000 feet |
| Markpoint | Designated point of interest, typically within the datalink / sensor system |
| Merge(d) | Friendlies and targets are in the same visual arena / geographical location |
| Mil Power | The maximum amount of thrust from a jet engine without engaging the afterburner |
| Mother, Boat, Bingo Field | Aircraft Carrier |
| Mud / Spike | Radar is locking you up, mud denotes ground radar |
| Music | Use of jamming to deny being locked up, either by you, friend, or foe |
| Nails | RWR contact in search mode |
| Naked | No RWR or (radar) information on enemy |
| No joy | No (visual) contact on the target ( / enemy) unit; opposite of 'Tally' |
| Notching | Flying perpendicular to the aircraft attacking you with radar (missiles) to try and spoof the radar (missile) |
| On station | Unit has reached assigned location |
| Oops | What you say after you let an SU-27 get on your wingman's six o'clock |
| Orbit(ing | Hold current / indicated position, typically in a circular orbit above the indicated location |
| Overshoot | Being forced out in front of an opposing aircraft, most likely due to having too much airspeed |
| Package | Group of different aircraft combined to perform a single mission |
| Padlocked | Crew cannot takes eyes off the target without losing it |
| Passive | Receiving signals without needing to emit your own signals to obtain data |
| Payload | Usefull loadout of an aircraft, including ordinance, fuel, etc. |
| Pickle | (Cluster / General-purpose) Bomb Unit release |
| Picture | Request for AWACS to provide air information / air overview relevant to mission |
| Pitbull | Missile has gone active (turned on its own radar) |
| Pk | Probability of kill |
| Pop-up | Units have suddenly appeared |
| Press | Pushing on to the enemy you are engaging (shortly) |
| PRF | Pulse Repetition Frequencies |
| Pucker Factor | Method of rating (dangerous) missions, from 0 to 10 (0 being the lowest, 10 being the highest) |
| Punch out | To eject from the airplane |
| Radar (Radio Detection And Ranging) | A pulsed beam of energy used to scan for, detect, and return information about a target |
| Raygun | Locking up an unknown target, querying the IFF response from friendly units |
| Rejoin | Return to close formation flight |
| Rifle | Air to ground missile launch |
| ROE | Rules Of Engagement, dicates how you are to engage targets (ie return fire only) |
| RWR | Radar Warning Receiver, reads and presents current radar signals spiking your aircraft |
| SAM | Surface-to-Air Missile |
| SAM (direction) | Visual acquisition of SAM in flight or SAM launch, including position reference |
| Section | Flights are divided into sections of 2 - 3 aircraft (similar to fireteams in a squad) |
| Semi-active | (Missile) Has its own radar receiver, but targets reflected radar waves / illumination from the host aircraft |
| Shack | Weapons impact on ground (unit) |
| Situational Awareness (SA) | Knowing what is going around you at all times: where are enemies, where are friendlies, is my six clear? |
| Sparkle | IR Pointer (from a Targetting Pod) |
| Spike | Threat on the RWR receiver: 'Badger 1-1 has an SA-10 spike at twelve o'clock' |
| Splash | Enemy target hit |
| Stack | Two or more contacts are in close together (in a group) |
| Stall | Due to high / low AOA, the maximum lift capability is exceeded, resulting in an abrupt loss of lift |
| Status | Report situation |
| STOVL | Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing |
| Tally (Ho) | Recognition of an enemy unit; opposite of 'No Joy' |
| TFR | Terrain Following Radar |
| TLAR | That Looks About Right; winging it |
| Trashed | Missile has been defeated |
| VFR | Visual Flight Rules; fly by your eyesight when it is clear enough to see |
| Visual | Recognition of an friendly unit or (landmark) object |
| VTOL | Vertical Take-Off and Landing |
| Wilco | Will Comply with received instructions |
| Winchester | No ordinance (missiles, bombs) remaining |
| WVR | Within Visual Range |
| Zulu (time) | GMT+0, Greenwich Time |
