Fighter Combat

SECTION TACTICS, TWOVERSUS-ONE 209MiG-15s against U.S. F-86 Sabres in Korea. The MiGs would stay very fast,near the maximum speed of both aircraft types, so the attacking Sabrescould not achieve a significant energy advantage. Since the MiG had asubstantial T/W advantage over the guns-only Sabres, the MiG splittinghigh was usually in little danger of being caught in its zoom.In general, the high/low split should not be attempted against an allaspectmissile threat, or when the section is attacked by a fighter nearlyequivalent in zoom capability. The relative merits of the sandwich(fighters turn in the same direction) and the split (fighters turn away fromeach other horizontally or vertically) depend on several factors. One ofthese is the range at which the attack is detected. To be effective, thesandwich (Figure 5-4) requires that the attacker be approaching a rangeapproximating the lateral separation between the defending fighters and befirmly committed to one target. If the attack is discovered early, it may bepossible to delay defensive maneuvering until just prior to the bogey'sopen-fire point, to allow the range to close and the target to be determined.A slight miscalculation here, obviously, would be unfortunate. The longrange of an attacker's AAM also may preclude this option. Under suchcircumstances the defensive split (Figure 5-5), either the level or thehigh/low variety, may be more appropriate.It is apparent that the sandwich and the high/low split, which place thefree fighter in a threatening position within 90° to 180° of turn, are moreefficient than the left/right horizontal split, which typically requires 270°to 360° of turn before a firing position can be achieved. Another disadvantageof the level defensive split is the great separation generated betweenthe fighters (several miles at today's speeds), which easily can cause thefree-fighter pilot to lose sight of the fight, with disastrous results. Thehigh/low split, when appropriate, reduces this separation significantly.Another tactic is something of a combination of the sandwich and thesplit. The "half-split," as illustrated by Figure 5-6, involves one pilotturning hard away from his wingman, who in turn extends straight ahead.In practice the pilot of the extending fighter may need to turn slightly tokeep sight of his wingman and the attacker, and he may also choose toclimb or dive while extending.At time "1" the section (in combat spread) detects an attacker behind itclosing fast, but still out of range. The pilot of the southern fighter turnsleft (away from his wingman) using sustained-G levels to conserve energyand separate from his wingman. The pilot of the northern fighter, meanwhile,extends essentially straight ahead and watches the bogey and hiswingman. In this case the bogey pilot chooses to attack the southernfighter, a fact that becomes evident before time "2." The defender nowtightens his turn to defeat the attack, while the wingman comes back hardto sandwich the attacker. Figure 5-7 illustrates how the section can counterif the bogey attacks the extending fighter.In this scenario the positions at time " 1" are the same as for the previousexample, and the section employs the same half-split. This time, however,the bogey follows the extending fighter. When the situation becomes clear,at time "2," the pilot of the southern fighter reverses his turn direction