"Frank Stutzman" wrote...

A friend of mine flew A-6s in several Red Flag exercises. He has several
such near
miss stories. I think the best was when he was running along at about
500' agl
when he had a F-16 (F-15?) overtake him from below and then immediately
pull up in
an immelmann turn in front of him.

During the de-briefing, the other pilot was asked about this maneuver and
why he
did it. Basically, he was focused on what he was doing and never saw the
A-6,
before, during, or after his turn.

Fat chance! It sounds like a well-known "maneuver" known as "thumping"!

Also, I don't think I've ever seen anyone fly lower in exercises like that
than the Brits flying Buccaneers for the Oman AF (mid 80s). They would
regularly fly under our A-6s that were ingressing at 200' or less...