Factual error: The TLAM cruise missiles launched at the runway are subsonic. They could not catch up with and pass the Super Hornets.
FleetCommand
18th Jun 2022
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
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Suggested correction: It's not defined how fast the hornets are flying, and considering the mission I doubt that they would be running tanks in order to extend their range - so it could be possible that the hornets are flying slower than the max speed of the TLAM's.
With respect, the film does mention their speed: 660 knots, equal to 1,222 km/h, or Mach 0.99.
That's their speed once the actual attack run began in the canyon. Could have easily been going much slower while on approach over the water.
That's only during the run through the canyon after the missiles hit, and it would be known that something is coming. Until the missiles hit, there's no need to burn the fuel to get there as if they are spotted before missiles impact, the unknown enemy has time to scramble more aircraft than what's already airborne.
F-18 achieves maximum range (best fuel consumption) at 0.83 to 0.85 Mach, which is greater than TLAM's 0.7 Mach.
660 knots indicated, at high altitude, seems like it would be over the speed of sound.
7th Nov 2022
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Other mistake: The film's premise is attacking a target that GPS jamming protects. As the attack starts, it is becomes apparent that no such protection is in place. GPS jamming is a form of radio frequency jamming. It would severely affect all radio communications. But planes and their command carrier are in constant, undeterred radio contact. Moreover, the enemy uses radar-guided SA-3 Goa SAM units that would have been unable to operate properly in jamming conditions.
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Suggested correction: GPS jamming is transmitting radio signals on GPS frequencies, not all radio frequencies. It might prevent GPS being used for navigation or weapon aiming, but it would have little or no effect on radios or radar which use different frequency bands. At the risk of oversimplifying, it's like you could shine a bright flashlight to blind people trying to see you, but it wouldn't stop them using infra red (or hearing or smell or whatever else).
This correction is a mistake in itself. Without wide-spectrum jamming, the U.S. Navy never needed to use NAVFLIR for payload guidance. The site would be open to attacks from other radio-guided weapons, such as NAVCON guidance, standoff missile, and operator-guided bombs, especially since they were hard-pressed to guide their payload through a small window and ensure the survivability of their pilots.
In the movie they say GPS jamming, not wide spectrum jamming. GPS could be affected, but radar etc would still work. Like you say, the site would still be open to other attacks, and be able to use various defences.
It doesn't really matter. Maverick was told that GPS is jammed, so he threw all kinds of attack plans based on radio guidance out of the window, behaving as if there was a full-spectrum jamming in place. And his commanding officers didn't mind. Either the film's mistake is in its depiction of U.S. Navy's understanding of aerial warfare or its depictions of aerial warfare itself. There is huge mistake in there, it is only a matter of where.
27th Sep 2022
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Corrected entry: Phoenix says Hangman is the only active-duty pilot in the Navy with a confirmed kill, but she is wrong because Maverick has 3 confirmed kills and is still an active-duty Navy pilot, even though he has been flying test aircraft. (00:25:10)
Correction: She says, "you are looking at the only naval aviator on active duty with a confirmed air-to-air kill." She isn't wrong. Maverick was not an active-duty navy aviator since three years before that moment and would not become one until near the end of the film, i.e, a week later. Second, films are allowed to show characters that make in-universe mistakes. She corrects herself near the end of the film at 1:58:20, saying Maverick is an active-duty navy pilot with five kills.
Maverick is still an active duty Naval aviator the entire time.
Active duty yes; his designator was a test pilot, not a naval aviator at the time.
People on active duty get promoted based on their service length. In this film, Maverick has not received a promotion for 30 years, and more importantly, has not scored a single aerial kill in 30 years.
He's had a few promotions in 30 years. In 1986, he was an O-3. In this film, he is an O-6. He hasn't been promoted at the same rate as his peers, for sure, but that's just who he is. He didn't want to be in a position where he couldn't fly anymore. On that note, he's not assigned to a Fighter Squadron at the beginning of the film, but to a test pilot billet - so technically, Phoenix was correct in her thinking if not her choice of words.
Cyclone graduated in 1988. 34 years later, he's an Admiral and air boss. Maverick graduated two years earlier and stayed a Captain for Amelia's entire life, despite having flown missions in Iraq, among other things. Where did all his service time go? The answer is a "dishonorable discharge." He got his service time annulled because of his escapades involving "The Admiral" (Penny's father), "the Other Admiral", and Admiral Cain. He got fired. In the real world, he'd get fired upon.
You are assuming way too much. While it's true that the Navy would likely encourage him to retire long before the events of the new movie, it's spelled out in the film that he hasn't advanced because he wants to keep flying. He's a maverick, plain and simple. If he has to piss off an Admiral to keep from getting promoted to a desk job, he'd do it.
Let me quote what you just said: "it's spelled out in the film that he hasn't advanced!" There you go. Do you know what else has been spelled out in the film? That at 00:25:10 film time, Hangman was the only active-duty pilot in the Navy with a confirmed kill.
No, it's spelled out that he is the only active naval aviator with a kill. Maverick is not a naval aviator anymore; he is a test pilot. Different designators.
15th Oct 2022
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Factual error: One of the major plot points is the second aircraft "buddy lasing" so that the bombs will hit the target. Since the target is a non-moving structure, the coordinates would have been programmed into the mission computer onboard the aircraft ahead of time so there would be no reason to have to manually find and aim the laser to guide the bombs.
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Suggested correction: It was mentioned in the movie that the location was GPS jammed, so they cannot get the exact coordinates for the bunker beforehand, therefore it requires this mission to have the F-18/A pairs and buddy lase the bombs to the target.
That's another mistake. GPS jamming is a form of radio frequency jamming. There is no such jamming in place. The aircraft are in constant two-way contact with their carrier group.
GPS is only one part of the radio frequency spectrum. Radar is another, radio communications another (actually a number of different frequencies). A GPS jammer does not block radio communication - unless it's a broad spectrum jammer - which could then interfere with the radar they are flying low to avoid. In the first gulf war GPS jammers were sold to Iraq by Russia - and the US mentioned that several were destroyed with GPS guided devices.
And that's yet another mistake. Without a broad spectrum jammer in place, F-35 could deliver its payload using NAVCON guidance. Another issue is that the so-called GPS jamming was so clean it didn't even cause crackle on other radio frequencies.
7th Jun 2022
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Deliberate mistake: When Maverick is in the bar texting Iceman, Iceman's sentence-long responses come almost immediately after Maverick sends his messages, without enough time having elapsed for Iceman to have typed them out. Compare this to the later scene at the selectively mute Iceman's house, where he types out various sentences for Maverick to read, and the amount of time it takes him to type them out is more of what one would expect.
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Suggested correction: Typing on a PC keyboard isn't the same as typing on a smartphone. The former requires proper coordination of both hands. The latter may use AI-assisted predictive suggestions and auto-correct. Microsoft's discontinued SwiftKey could predict all of Iceman's responses.
Predictive text and autocorrect still wouldn't account for Iceman's responses appearing on Maverick's screen almost immediately after Maverick sends his texts to Iceman. It would still take at least a few seconds for that to happen. The reason this is a deliberate mistake because they didn't want to waste screen time showing Iceman's responses appearing in a more realistic time-frame.
Iceman's typing starts at 0:21:51 and ends at 0:21:58. That's more than long enough. Maverick is twice as fast and we see his typing on the screen. He can type a whole sentence between 0:21:58 to 0:22:01. And it seems natural to me.
Maverick texts "The kid's not ready for this mission." Iceman responds "No one is," and roughly 2 seconds later a separate text appears, in which he says "That's why you're here." No amount of predictive text or autocorrect can both type out that sentence that quickly as well as deliver it to the recipient's phone.
First, in the real world, Iceman would be typing even as he hits the Send message. Maverick's phone would stop displaying the "Iceman is typing..." message to do the unfurl animation, but Iceman is still typing. Second, yes, Microsoft's AI-assisted SwiftKey could. Iceman types "That's" and SwiftKey guesses the rest. This degree of intelligent predication is mundane! Microsoft's IntelliCode predicts the C# code you'd want to write.
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