Air Combat Maneuvering – Offense

[Music] [Music] Ever since military aviators could get their aircraft into the air, the fighter pilot has been the cream of the crop. He was the one who pitted his skill against any adversary fighter pilots to gain mastery of the skies. He flies well equipped and well-maintained aircraft. But the aircraft is only part of the story. The pilot must know how to effectively fly his aircraft in combat. This film will deal with the basic principles of air combat maneuvering. Principles that have now come full circle since the days of the first fighter pilots. ACM calls for pilots who will strive to fly their aircraft to the edge of the performance envelope. You must fly your aircraft aggressively as a weapon system in concert with your sectionmate when engaging a bogey. You must understand the three-dimensional world in which you will be applying your knowledge and skill. Maneuverability in the ACM portion of flight is a measure of the energy attained and sustained by the fighter pilot. The total energy available is most easily thought of as the sum of the kinetic and the potential energies of the aircraft. Kinetic energy is the energy of velocity while potential energy is the energy of position or altitude. For instance, when relatively low and fast, you can turn the speed into altitude. When high, you can use power to accelerate. However, diving will rapidly gain back your speed. Put another way, total energy equals aircraft gross weight time the velocity squared divided by 2 * the acceleration due to gravity plus the aircraft's gross weight times its altitude or height. At a given weight and altitude, let's see the effects of velocity and gload on an aircraft. Because the velocity is squared, speed has a significant effect on energy. For example, a 20% change in speed, increase or decrease, will result in an approximate 40% change in the amount of energy available. The amount of G on the aircraft also affects the total energy. A high G maneuver will rapidly dissipate energy. Low G will allow energy to be built up. When in a low energy state, low and slow, an important consideration for the fighter pilot is the energy addition rate. High thrust to weight ratio aircraft generally have the greatest acceleration capability. Energy addition is a function of the excess power available to overcome parasitic drag and induced drag. Parasitic drag remains essentially constant with any wing loading. However, induced drag increases as lift increases. In any aircraft, maximum thrust at the lowest wing loading will give the most acceleration. Turn performance may be measured in two ways. Turn rate and turn radius. In ACM, turns are seldom performed in only a horizontal plane. Turns may be in a vertical plane or in an oblique plane. The rate, radius, and energy for turns are all directly affected by the G acting on the aircraft. In horizontal turns, the rate and the radius will remain essentially constant for a given g- loading applied to the aircraft. High G turns will cause an increase in the energy consumed. The higher the G, the more energy consumed. In aircraft such as the A4, the total energy level will be reduced substantially. For the greatest conservation of your energy level and to achieve the greatest effective turn, perform turns in a vertical plane. When pointed straight up, the turn or radial G acting on the aircraft will be the total G on the aircraft. Let's assume a 4G turn at the top. With a constant total G of four on the aircraft, the effective radial G will be five. On the way down again the radial and total G's will be the same at the bottom of the loop with a total G of four on the aircraft. The radial G is now only three while maintaining the same total 4G on the aircraft throughout the loop. You can see we have an effective 5G turn at the top giving a smaller turn radius. your air speed will be lower. However, you now have altitude potential energy so that you have maintained a high energy level while changing the direction of the aircraft. In all ACM work, avoid a horizontal only turn whenever possible. Start thinking in terms of three dimensions. Use the vertical plane. All ACM is directed to your being able to maneuver your aircraft to a position from which you can fire or launch your weapons against an adversary. Angle off is a measure of the relative heading of the attacker and the defender measured from the 6:00 position. 180° angle off is a head-on situation. A forward quarter attack is from 180 to 135°. And a beam attack occurs when the attacker is between 135° and 45° angle off. A rear quarter or low angle off is from 45 to 0°. that is 0 degrees occurs when the attacker is directly on the defender six. The gun attack area is generally within 30° angle off. However, it is a conical shape. ACM is fluid with angle off difficult to determine and changing rapidly especially when hassling in a vertical plane. Another factor in ACM, you must be able to determine range to use your guns or other weapons successfully. Know the effective range of your available weapons. Early recognition of closure rate is essential to determine your maneuver to stay in position. You may just have excess speed or too high an angle off. In either case, overshooting the defender may result. You must determine your closure rate early. The aggressive fighter pilot must know his opponent's aircraft as well as his own in order to maneuver within effective weapon range. For gun tracking, a low angle off position is desired. However, it will require maneuvering to stay in phase and position. A high yo-yo will allow you to control closure and conserve energy. An opponent may turn in an attempt to force you to overshoot. Instead of trying to stay inside of him by increasing your rate of turn, trade air speed for altitude. Roll away from the defender's flight path and pull the nose up without buffeting. Closure and potential overshoot will determine how high to carry the yo-yo. In this situation, you have traded the airspeed portion of your energy for altitude, potential energy. A properly executed high yo-yo is difficult to counter. If he dives for separation, you dive after him. On the other hand, if he turns nose high into you, you keep going up. Your speed will be at least as great or greater than his. You will maintain greater potential energy, hence the advantage. If he continues the defensive turn in a horizontal plane, you now low yo-yo. The low yo-yo allows you to close nosetotail separation. Maintain what back pressure you have and increase rudder pressure to the inside. Allow your nose to drop. As your air speed increases, maneuver your nose in front of the defender. As nosetotail distance decreases, work your nose back to a guning position. A series of high and low yo-yos may be necessary to achieve and keep you in the guning cone. Now, let's follow a typical high and low yo-yo. As you close, watch the bogeies turn. Check his angle off and your closure. You're closing too fast, so start your nose up. You're going up. Try to stay on or inside his turn. You've prevented the overshoot. Now start back down for your low yo-yo. You have to close nose to tail. Trade altitude for speed. With your speed back up, establish gun tracking. In attacking at a low angle off with low to medium range, a displacement roll may control a high closure rate and further reduce angle off. Upon recognizing this situation, to perform the roll, add back pressure to align fuselages and pull the nose up and roll away from the defender's turn. You will move laterally toward the defender's turn radius, placing you closer to the defender's six. The displacement roll is a fairly tight roll in that a low angleoff condition already exists. The closure rate is controlled and angle off is further reduced. Medium angles off require perception and control at an early stage so that you can adjust closure and avert an overshoot and reduce angle off to a workable amount. Normally a high yo-yo might seem to be the tactical answer, but the yo-yo would have to be carried very high to prevent the overshoot. If you go too high, the defender can unload and run. If you overshoot, he can turn into the plane of your attack, establishing an out of phase situation and a higher angle off for you. A barrel roll attack offers the best solution to a medium angleoff situation with a high closure rate. This is a maneuver similar to the displacement roll. When it becomes apparent you have a high angle off, attempt a barrel roll attack. Pull slightly below and inside the defender's turn. Attempt to align your fuselage with your opponents. You must position your nose well ahead of the defender. Evaluate your closure and separation again. You must now judge the proper point to pull up and barrel roll away from the defender's turn. Avoid high G's that will lose energy, that is air speed. As you roll through the inverted, use back stick and bottom rudder judiciously to achieve a nose low attitude in phase with the defender. Your angle off will have been reduced substantially. A low yo-yo should help you close nose totail distance. Upon recognition of a high closure rate and medium angle off, the barrel roll attack may help you get in phase and into gun tracking position. The maneuver is not the classic precision barrel roll, but rather a means to reduce angle off and control closure. A high angle off or forward quarter attack often results when opponents sight each other at some distance and turn to attack. You should attempt to meet your opponent with a high energy level. Sacrifice altitude if necessary to build energy and offset horizontally to attempt to improve angle off. If your opponent allows this, you will engage with an initial advantage and can work yourself to firing position. If, on the other hand, the defender makes a similar move, he will negate any advantage with only a head-on pass. At this point, you'll be at a relatively high energy level. Just after passing, again, start your turn in the vertical plane. Continue to work in the vertical. If your opponent turns in the horizontal plane, you'll be turning more effectively and should gain the advantage. Success in an air-to-air engagement may be attributed to a number of requisites. For pilots, the two main factors are aggressiveness and knowledge. Any aspiring fighter pilot must possess an aggressive spirit that in some instances can win engagements against superior odds or aircraft. Knowledge means knowing your aircraft, your opponent's aircraft, and ACM tactics. With these ingredients, practice in air combat maneuvering skills will produce a fighter pilot who can fly our Navy's aircraft against any in the world. [Music]