Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

FIGHTER WEAPONS 15
Gun Employment
When one has shot down one's first, second or third opponent, then one
begins to find out how the trick is done.
Baron Manfred von Richthofen
Leading Ace of WW-I, German Air Service
80 Victories
In order to destroy a target with, a gun system, the shooter must meet
range, aiming, and firing-time requirements. Weapons-system range constraints
usually involve both maximum- and minimum-range limits.
Effective maximum range for air-to-air guns depends on many factors,
including bullet ballistics, sight accuracy, fuzing requirements (cannori),
dispersion, target vulnerability (including size), altitude, shooter and
target speeds, and firing geometry. A reasonable effective maximum range
for modern gun systems against fighter targets is about 3,000 ft.
Minimum range for a gun system is somewhat harder to define, being
based primarily on the shooter's ability to avoid a collision with the target
or the target debris. Closure, shooter maneuverability, deflection, and
pilot reaction time are the primary factors here. Minimum range has
generally increased with fighter speeds. At typical jet-fighter speeds in a
maneuvering situation, 500 ft might be a reasonable minimum range.
Here is a firsthand account of just what a min-range gun shot is like.
This passage is a description of Major John Godfrey's first victory; he was
flying a P-47 over Europe, and the victim was a German Me 109.
Breathlessly I watched the 109 in between the breaks in the clouds as I
dove. At 12,000 feet I leveled off and watched him up ahead. In diving I had
picked up speed, and now had hit 550 miles an hour. I was about 500 feet
below him and closing fast. Quick now, I've got time. I checked all around, in
back and above me, to insure that no other Jerries were doing the same to me.
My speed was slackening off now, but I still had enough to pick up that extra
500 feet and position myself 200 yards dead astern. The 109 flew as straight as
an arrow, with no weaving. As his plane filled my gun sight I pressed the tit.
The results were incredible. No sooner did I feel the plane shudder as the
machine guns went off, than a huge flame engulfed the 109, followed immediately
by a black cloud of debris extending fifty feet in all directions in
front of me. Instinctively I threw up my arm over my face and pulled back on
the stick, expecting any minute that the wreckage would break my
windshield. 1
The aiming requirement is to point the guns so that the bullets hit the
target. The techniques and difficulty of this task depend largely on the
sight design and the firing geometry. In general, the GBL must be pointed
in front of the target by the amount of the required lead angle, as previously
discussed.
The required firing time is related to both the number of bullets hitting
the target over a given period of time and the number of hits required for a
kill. Required firing time is therefore dependent on the lethality of the gun
system, dispersion, range, firing geometry, and target vulnerability.
For a kill to be registered, the available firing time must exceed the