Use of the Cannon

3. Air-to-air Attack without Radar

We will not use radar in this basic course. That'll come in a later course.

In the game there is a guided training mission, which explains the use of the onboard cannon in air combat in detail.
To open it, choose TRAINING > F/A-18C > Air combat M61A2 onboard gun.

Furthermore, there are still free training missions without explanatory texts to practice and engrain the steps.
For this purpose open MISSION > F/A-18C > Weapons training - Air-to-Air Missiles and Airborne Gun.

To be able to attack air targets with the aircraft cannon, you must follow the steps below.

Procedures

Activate weapon main switch, i.e. move it up (MASTER ARM).

If you set the weapon main switch to ARM, you will see in the middle that the status changes from SAFE to ARM and in the lower right corner and you can see that the SIM is hidden.
Turn off the radar. (RADAR OFF)
By using the weapon selector switch on the control stick or middle LShift + X you select the onboard cannon for air combat. (A/A GUNS)
The main mode switch is automatically switched to air-air and the page is changed in the SMS. (MODE A/A)
Call up the Stores Management System (SMS) on the left DDI if it is not already open. (DDI SMS).
To do this, press the middle button on the bottom row PB18 until you reach the tactical TAC page.
Then select STORES on the top left and you will be on the SMS page.
Steer the aircraft so that, depending on the distance, either the 1,000 foot or 2,000 foot range mark is over the target (AIM AND SHOOT).
When the tips of the wings touch the edges of the firing tunnel you are within range. Now pull the trigger.
You can adjust the wingspan of the target with the UFC (see next section).