RTC – MOD-07 – Pt.05 – Understanding BRAA calls

BRAA calls are what the ABM will use to identify friendly or enemy aircraft to you so it is important that you understand how they work. You will be required to be able to pass them too, even as a pilot, as it is the best way of passing enemy locations to allied flights.

BRAA stands for Bearing Range Altitude Aspect from the recipients current location.

“BRAA, 275, 25, FL200, hot”

This means the target is on a bearing from you of 275 Deg, 25nm away at FL200 heading directly towards you.

The aspect of an enemy aircraft to a friendly formation can be described as below:

The aspect of friendly aircraft to an enemy formation can be described as such:

You can also describe your tactical position against a known enemy formation as such also:

“Hammer 31, Notching”

This alerts others on the frequency that you are heading approximately 90 Deg left or right from the bearing of the enemy.

Being efficient in passing BRAA calls

You will often find the AI ABM passing BRAA calls in the following manner:

“Hammer 31, Magic, BRAA, 290 for 15 at 2000, hot”

However adding the “for” and “at” is a waste of time on a radio where only 1 person can talk at a time. Providing you or the ABM passes all bearings as 3 figures it will be obvious that any figures after would be a distance, so for instance:

“Two Nine Zero One Five”

Would always be a bearing of 290 and a distance of 15 nm and:

“Two One Five Five”

Would always be a bearing of 215 and a distance of 5 nm.