The following three gun sights are available to help you point your gun out in front of the target: the LCOS, the EEGS and the Snapshoot line. We will discuss each one, but let's talk about how to call them up in FalconAF. Press RETURN so that "EEGS" appears in the HUD. This also opens the SMS page for the GUN on the right MFD display. If you don't see the SMS page, press one of the master mode OSB buttons (three bottom middle buttons) and select SMS from the upcoming list. Note that the master mode is shown as "GUN" in the top left, with the submode "EEGS" next to it.
EEGS (pronounced "eegz") is a gun sight that combines some elements of the LCOS sight (see below) with what is called a predictor sight. A predictor sight is a gun sight that will predict the location of a maneuvering target in space one bullet's time of flight in the future (which is tough unless you have a mind-meld with the enemy pilot). EEGS (Enhanced Envelope Gun Sight) is not a predictor but is very close to being one as well as a great all-around aiming reference. The EEGS gun sight is shown in Figure 14-4.
Figure 14-4
The primary feature of the EEGS sight is the funnel. The EEGS funnel provides the pilot with a quick reference to help line up in the target's plane of motion. It's also a great reference for getting the gun cross out in front of the target. The correct gunshot solution exists when the wings of the target are just touching the funnel lines. When this occurs, you are aiming the proper distance out in front of the target--it's that simple. In addition, when you hold the target in the funnel, you are also in plane with the target.
What makes the funnel so good? The funnel is superior to every other gun sight mentioned when the radar is not locked on to the target. In fact, the funnel gun sight works well with or without a radar lock.
EEGS
This is not true of the only other viable F-16 gun sight mode, LCOS. If you do not have a radar lock with LCOS, the target's G and airspeed are assumed to be the same as yours. While this is bad enough, what's worse is that the target is assumed to be at 1,500 feet when the radar is not locked on.
What this means is that the LCOS sight is almost always lying to you when the radar is not locked on (unless the target just happens to be 1,500 feet away).
EEGS, on the other hand, provides a cue in the form of the funnel to get the target to the proper range.
Remember that when the wingspan of the target is touching the funnel lines, you are at the correct range for a shot. What about aircraft with different wingspans? Well, the wingspan is set to 35 feet by default. This wingspan is right in between the wingspan of the F-16 (32 feet) and the F-15 (41 feet). But it really doesn't matter anyway because when using the EEGS funnel, you fire a burst and move the target through the funnel. This technique accounts for differences in target wingspans (more on technique later). However, there is a way to change the wingspan deep inside the avionics section, which will be handled later in this manual.
In addition to the funnel, the EEGS sight also has a set of MRGS lines (Multiple Reference Gun Sight) lines at the bottom of the EEGS display. The MRGS lines help you line up in the target's plane of motion. Another EEGS feature are the small "+" and "-" signs that appear when you are locked onto the target. These symbols are essentially a 1 G (+) and 9 G (-) pipper. If the target is at 9 Gs, the 9 G pipper provides an accurate reference for a gunshot. Most of the time, however, the target will be somewhere between 1 and 9 Gs so the aiming solution will be somewhere in between these pippers.
LCOS stands for Lead Computing Optical Sight and is shown in Figure 14-5. The LCOS pipper essentially provides a reference target where the gun barrels are currently aimed if the shooter (you) and the target (the other guy) do not change parameters (airspeed, G, range, etc.) for one bullet's time of flight. What it means is that the LCOS pipper is accurate if you and the target keep flying the same path at the same speed for the time it takes for the bullets to leave your gun and arrive at the target.
LCOS
Figure 14-5
This sounds bad, but it's just the way all gunshots work. Back to our clay pigeon example. Let's say you have the perfect aim out in front of a clay pigeon with a shotgun and just as you shoot, a big gust of wind changes the path of the target. In this example, the shot might miss because the aimpoint you used for the shot is no longer valid. During the time it takes for the pellets to arrive at the target, the target has changed vectors. This is what LCOS is all about. It is only good if everything stays constant through the time-of-flight for the bullets.
This may lead you to believe that the LCOS pipper is not a very good aiming reference. This is not true.
Most 20mm gunshots have bullet time-of-flights of between 0.5-1.5 seconds. If the enemy pilot does not change G, airspeed or maneuver out of plane in this amount of time, the bullets will shred his cranium. The target has a tough task to avoid being hit by the bullets for several reasons.
The first is that your gun has a very high rate of fire, 100 rounds per second. The second is that the bullet's time of flight is very fast. The third is that the gun has a dispersion pattern of 6 milliradians, which means that 80% of the bullets will hit within a 6-foot circle at 1,000 feet. The F-16 cannon, in other words, has a built-in "shotgun type" dispersion pattern that is designed to hit fighter-sized targets.
For all these reasons, you have a good chance of getting a hit when you shoot with the LCOS pipper on the target.
The Snapshoot line is an aiming reference that is not very useful against maneuvering targets. The