Fighter Combat

118 ONE-VERSUS-ONE MANEUVERING, SIMILAR AIRCRAFTAs the energy fighter gains advantage in the rolling scissors, it will soon beable to point at its opponent for a short period of time during the bogey'spull-out. The sooner a missile can be pointed at the target, the earlier thebogey pilot will be required to begin his pull-out in order to increase AOTbeyond the missile's limits. This threat may induce the defender to starthis pull-out before he achieves his desired speed, and it often leads toincreased advantage for the energy fighter on the next loop of the scissors.The energy tactician can hasten this process by performing an earlier, moreaggressive lead turn over the top of his loop. Each cycle of the scissors willgenerally result in less AOT as the energy fighter points down at the bogey.Figure 3-9 shows the end-game of this scenario. At time "1" the energyfighter is in a very advantageous offensive lag-pursuit position at thebottom of its rolling-scissors maneuver. As the bogey continues its obliqueloop, the energy fighter pulls up vertically. Approaching the vertical attitude,the pilot of the energy fighter projects the bogey's future flight pathand rolls to place the lift vector ahead of the bogey's position (time "2"). Hethen pulls down smartly toward a nose-down vertical attitude once more,but not before the bogey pilot has committed his nose down. Ideally, as theenergy tactician begins to pull down over the top of his loop, he would liketo be directly above his opponent. The nose should then be pointed at thetarget as quickly as possible, and the shot taken (time "3") before the bogeycan generate too many angles.In the guns-only energy fight, a vertical pull-up was prescribed for entryinto the rolling scissors. The vertical pull-up is the most energy-efficientmethod for converting excess airspeed to altitude; but this luxury may notbe always available to the pilot of the energy fighter, especially against amissile-equipped opponent. The increased range and relaxed aiming requirementsof these weapons may allow the angles fighter to pop its noseup, point, and fire even before the energy fighter can complete its zoom.One technique for preventing this involves substituting a spiral pull-up,illustrated in Figure 3-10, for the wings-level one. After the bogey's energyhas been bled, and the decision to trade airspeed for altitude advantage hasbeen made (time "1"), the energy tactician should begin to pull his fighter'snose higher and higher, in a positive manner, while still continuing to turnin the nose-to-tail direction. This forces the angles fighter (bogey) to turnconsiderably farther to point at its target. The energy fighter pilot mustwatch the bogey carefully over the inside shoulder, and monitor its noseposition closely. Initially the bogey pilot can be expected to attempt tofollow the energy fighter up into the spiral, continuously pulling his nosedirectly upward and around toward his target, and he may appear to begaining angles. Eventually, though, as the spiral steepens, the bogey'sangular gains will slow, and then its climb angle will appear to stabilize(time "2"). This is an indication that the bogey no longer has the airspeednecessary to get its nose up to point at its target, and it is the energytactician's clue that it is now safe for him to steepen his climb to nearvertical, seeking a position above and behind the bogey. This is done byleveling the wings and pulling toward pure vertical. The bogey then can bereacquired over the opposite shoulder, and the roll and flight-path angle