Fighter Combat

SECTION TACTICS, TWOVERSUS-ONE 233single fighter also desperately needs to reacquire and track the free bogeyvisually. This may be difficult, since sight will most likely be lost temporarilyat the overshoot occurring at time "3," but reacquiring sight isimportant for determining the point at which the singleton must switchoff the engaged bogey and defend against the free bogey.Even if the free bogey is not visually reacquired, however, its pilot's taskis not a simple one. He has a long way to go to rejoin the fight, and anengaged bogey pilot who is fighting for his life cannot make the singlefighter predictable. The free bogey will also likely have a large speedadvantage as it reenters the action, which makes attack timing critical anddifficult for its pilot. In addition, guns tracking an aircraft in a scissors,particularly a rolling scissors, is next to impossible, and lobbing a missileinto a slow-speed scissors is like flipping a coin to decide which aircraft isthe target.A kill is a kill.AnonymousFigure 5-16 shows how the singleton pilot might respond to the freefighter's attack later in this engagement. At time "4" the singleton hasgained a good advantage on the engaged bogey in the scissors but has notbeen able to deliver the coup de grace. Meanwhile the free bogey is reenteringthe fight from the south. The pilot of the single fighter sees the freebogey and determines that a reversal to continue the scissors would placethe attacker at too great an advantage. Therefore the singleton switches offthe engaged bogey to defend against the free bogey, generating an overshootat time "5." At this point the defender has the option of attemptingan escape (the broken flight path to point "6"') or continuing the engagementby reversing as shown by the flight path to point "6." Against muchfaster bogeys the first option may not be available, and if it is attempted thedefender must watch the bogeys carefully to determine whether they havehad enough or intend to press their attack. The second option is essentiallya repeat of the previous phase of the engagement; namely, hassling onebogey (in this case the one that just overshot) while keeping track of theother.If all-aspect missiles are carried by the bogey fighters, they can makeswitches such as that shown in Figure 5-16 very hazardous. In this caseclose proximity to the engaged bogey may be the singleton's best protectionagainst the free bogey. The engaged bogey might be used as a shielduntil the free bogey reaches min-range for its missile, and then the singletoncan perform a switch more safely.The F-4 had a hotter afterburner heat source than the MiGs, and with bothMiG and wingman in my sight, it was difficult to fire, lest the missile kill my"wingie."Commander Randy "Duke" Cunningham, USNReturning to Figure 5-15 for a moment, and assuming the bogeys aremore maneuverable but slower, the singleton simply cannot afford to gettied up one-versus-one with the engaged bogey as just outlined. Success in