Webmaster

The Fighter Tactics Academy was first envisioned during the annual Draken Knights Meeting at Rovaniemi in March 1996. The academy was officially established on the 18th of June 1996 in Tampere, Finland. After that meeting the Academy went into hibernation because a proper media for the Academy's proceedings could not be found. In April 1997 it was decided to put the Academy on the Web. First publication was on the 19th of July 1997. The Aviation Writers of Finland group selected our site as their annual "Follow Me" media award winner in 1997.

The Fighter Tactics Academy site covers international and Finnish Air Force fighter tactics and fighter history related topics. You will also find aerospace news links and book reviews.

Our biggest effort so far was the international Fighter Symposium '98 at Nokia, Finland. We had some 200 participants and among the briefers were Boeing F/A-18 test pilot Ernie Wattam, BAe EF2000 Project Pilot John Turner, XO Top Gun CDR Carroll "Lex" Le'fon and former F-117A squadron and wing commander Maj Gen (ret) John F. Miller Jr.

On of the most interesting incidents regarding our site took place during the Red Flag exercise in 1998 and definitely underlined the global impact of the internet. During discussions at the Nellis O'Club Friday Red Flag party with the commander and the ops officer from the 414 CTS "The aggressors" the latter mentioned that the aggressors use data from a web site in Finland for their MiG-29 aggressor presentation. The surprise was great when it turned out that the site was no other than this Fighter Tactics Academy site.

In late 1999 to commemorate 60 years from the Winter War we published the personal history of Gustav Erik Magnusson who was the father of Finnish fighter tactics. With that publication we tried to tie together the stories of several Finnish WWII aces. Latest in this series is the biography of Col Richard "Zimbo" Lorentz. Apali printing house published the "Richard Lorentz - the father of Finnish fighter aviation" book in late 2005

Fighter Symposium 2000 covered infra red missiles. In 2001 the Symposium was transferred to Jyväskylä to take advantage of the Jyväskylä International Air Show 2001. This time the main briefer was US Navy RDML "Gib" Godwin with the topic "The Future of Naval Aviation". US Navy was kind enough to fly their latest strike fighter, the F/A-18F Super Hornet to Finland for the air show. Two VFA-122 Super Hornets trailed the KC-135 tanker to Jyväskylä.

During international crisis like Desert Fox, Allied Force, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom we have arranged a link page to help tracking the current usage of air power.

Jarmo Lindberg

In 2001 the Commander of the Finnish Air Force approved a 3400 € annual scholarship for Fighter Tactics Academy members to study international fighter tactics issues. In late 2002 the Finnish Air Force Association granted a 2500€ scholarship for the site. Lately we have developed the site from pure fighter tactics into fighter operations and the application of air power in Joint operations. In early 2005 the Finnish Defence Forces Association chaired by the chief of defence granted the FTA a 4000 € scholarship and lately we received a 5000 € scholarsihip from the Finnish Defence Association chaired by the minister of defence. The scholarship funds have been used to update the site technology and to cover the ISP fees.

Next developments to the site will cover Helmet Mounted Sights, High Off-Boresight Missiles, Operations Centers, Joint/Combined Operational Picture, Joint Operations and Doctrines.

The Fighter Tactics Academy site celebrated its tenth anniversary on 19 July 2007. Since 1997 we have had some 550.000 visits from more than 140 countries on our web site. The Fighter Tactics Academy site will be constantly updated with the latest info and news from the fighter aviation world so stay tuned and please visit our site again!

Jyväskylä, Finland 6 January 2008,

Jarmo "Charles" Lindberg, FTA Webmaster

Fighter Tactics Academy

A word from the webmaster