Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times has an article about flying the Gripen Simulator at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2009 (Lima ‘09).
“Weapons integration is not an issue. We’ve cleared the Gripen for quite a number of weapons already. Currently, work to integrate the MBDA Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile on the Gripen is almost complete. If you have that in your weapons package; man, that’s like the death ray,” says Lewis-Olsson.
I step on to the next target and lock him up, just in time to see the first MiG being turned into a pile of very expensive aircraft parts hurtling toward the ground.
The second MiG is coming down my right side. The shoot cue comes on and I squeeze off another missile and it corkscrews crazily toward the target. As the MiG passes my two o’clock position, he breaks hard into me, punching off chaff and flares. The combination of hard manoeuvring and decoys defeats my missile.
It’s a knife fight now. I bang on the throttle and manoeuvre to get on his six. Switching to guns, I close in and wait for the shoot cue to come on. When it does, I squeeze the trigger and let off a two-second burst. Underneath me, the Mauser BK27 cannon spews out white-hot chunks of 27mm rounds that tear into the Fulcrum’s left wing root, shearing it clean off. The MiG-29 spirals uncontrollably to the ground. No chutes.
The whole article is available here.
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