THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 3, 1996 TAG: 9608030305
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 54 lines
Navy attack pilots are testing their mettle against a once-feared foe in the skies over Sardinia: The MiG-29 Fulcrum, a masterpiece of Soviet warplane design that was built to hunt and kill allied aircraft.
The dogfights unfolding this week and next over this Mediterranean island are not a harbinger of a superpower showdown, however.
These Fulcrums bear German colors, and their crews are tangling with aviators flying jets from the carrier Enterprise in an exercise aimed at honing the flying skills of both sides.
The Norfolk-based carrier saw five of its air wing's F/A-18 Hornets and three F-14 Tomcats take off for an air combat test range in western Sardinia on Wednesday, where the jets tangled with squadrons of Fulcrums and aging German Air Force F-4 Phantoms.
``Much like us, they need adversaries flying aircraft different from the airplanes they normally fly,'' said Capt. James Zortman, the carrier air wing's commander. ``They've got something we want, and we've got something they want.''
The MiGs joined the Russian arsenal in 1985, and have proved themselves ``one of the premier fighters in the world,'' Zortman said. The twin-engine, single-seat jet tops 1,400 mph and can climb at 65,000 feet a minute.
MiG-29s became part of Germany's Air Force inventory when the partitioned nation unified following the Warsaw Pact's collapse.
``It's kind of one of those unusual situations,'' Zortman said, ``in which the guys we were fighting against a few years ago are now our allies.''
Enterprise squadrons will rotate new pilots and aircraft into the range in the coming days. While in Sardinia, the crews will have a chance to compare notes with their German counterparts and to study their dogfights using the range's electronic monitors.
``Each aircraft has its own particular strengths as well as weaknesses,'' said Lt. Paul Ratkovich of VF-103, the Jolly Rogers of Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach. ``Training with different aircraft from what you're accustomed to enables you to figure out where you could exploit your enemy's weaknesses, were you ever to face one of these planes in combat.''
``I'm looking forward to finding out how I will do versus the German pilot flying the MiG-29,'' said Lt. Patrick Dyer, another Jolly Rogers aviator who is due to join the exercise Monday. ``It's more pilot versus pilot in this situation, rather than aircraft versus aircraft.''
Zortman said he particularly welcomed the chance to send pilots and radar-intercept officers mingling with the Germans, ``to learn from talking to each other.''
``Not only is there training in the cockpits, but a lot goes on in the ready room and maybe in the bar over a cup of tea later on,'' he said. ``I think there's a lot of training that you can get that way.''
The Enterprise and its air wing left Hampton Roads June 28 on a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean. The ship is steaming west of Corsica.
KEYWORDS: U.S.S ENTERPRISE by CNB