ACM
Air Combat Maneuvers
We have learned basic Flight Dynamics. We have learned BFM, what it is and how to use it. We have learned basic Intercept Maneuvers for BVR missile attacks. Now we are going to learn some of the most common Air Combat Maneuvers that are used during these situations. This is not an exhaustive list of maneuvers that you can use, but the most useful maneuvers you will need. There are many maneuvers that, while great for air shows, have little or no practical use in combat. Using some of these maneuvers may actually make you an easier target and get you killed. We will stick to maneuvers that will benefit you in air combat.Because air combat involves dynamic movement in three dimensions, one could conculde that it is an infinitely variable maneuvre/counter-maneuvre process. But such in not the case. A fighter pilot has only a limited number of options with which to meet a given situation. Which one he uses will be dictated more by the relative positions and energy states of himself and his opponent than by any potential technical advantages that his aircraft may possess. He will strive to deny his adversary the initiative, knowing that air combats are lost more often than they are won.
The pilot who holds the initiative can push his opponent around the sky, keeping him under constant pressure. The longer the pressure continues, the greater the stress on the defending pilot becomes as his life is threatened. Stress breeds mistakes and the first error may well prove fatal. Even if the defending pilot makes no errors he is likely to be forced into a series of energy-dissipating maneuvres that deplete his very maneuvre capability and render him ever less capable of defending himself.
Tha maneuvre phase proper generally begins when a pilot realises that he is about to come, or already is, under attack. His first priority is survival; turning the tables is secondary at this stage. The opening moves are thus defensive with the attacker conforming predictably to the defender's movements. Each maneuvre has its counter. However, it is the precision and timing of a maneuvre which is important; the ability to out-fly an opponent. The most technically advanced fighter in the world is only as good as its pilot.
If, however, the defending aircraft can achieve an eraly sighting the pilot should be able to maneuvre using normal turns to prevent the attacker from positioning in the lethal orvalunerability cones. Having negated the attack, the defender should eighrt disengage (for instance, on an attack sortie the primary aim must be to complete the bombing mission) or alternatively continue maneuvring into an attacking position.
The aspiring fighter pilot is taught basic air combat maneuvers, some defensive, others offensive. They are: the Break, the Scissors, the High-G Barrel Roll, Jinking, the Spiral Dive, the Vertical Rolling Scissors, the split S, the High Speed Yoyo, the Vector Roll or Rollaway, the Lag Pursuit, the Low Speed Yoyo, the Barrel Roll Attack, the Vertical Reverse, the Immelmann and various versions of and conuters to these.
Break Turn
Your most basic, and fundamental maneuver is the BREAK TURN. The BREAK TURN will increase the Angle Off Tail between you and your adversary as he attempts to line up to take a shot. Figure 8-1 shows a BREAK TURN from a "GODS EYE" view as well as rear views of variations of a BREAK TURN "Out of Plane".
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Figure 8 - 1
To initiate a BREAK TURN, bank your aircraft to one side and pull back on the stick. This is a HIGH G maneuver that will take advantage of a high turn rate and force your attacker into a high angle off position. It is important to be at or near your rated Corner Velocity to take maximum advantage of this maneuver.
There are two basic types of BREAK TURNS, Instantaneous and Sustained. An Instantaneous BREAK TURN is a tight, high G turn that will bleed speed rapidly, but will also offer maximum gain in Angle Off Tail. A Sustained BREAK TURN will not bleed speed as rapidly but will also not change your AoT nearly as fast.
A Sustained BREAK TURN will also put you in a fairly predictable flight path, thus making it easier for your adversary to line up a shot. To avoid this in any type of turn is to immediately follow a BREAK TURN with another BREAK TURN. This turn should take you even further out of the weapons envelope of your attacker. You could for example BREAK HIGH RIGHT, BREAK HIGH LEFT, BREAK LOW LEFT, BREAK HIGH RIGHT etc. The key here is not to break in a predictable manner.
The Break
This is used when an attacker is first seen or is already in the cone of vulnerability. Its purpose is twofold: to spoil the attacker's aim and to force him to overshoot. The break is always made towars the direction of attack. This generates "angle-off" as quickly as possible which makes the defender a difficult target. The attacker may be able to cut inside the turn but he is forced to pull lead. To do this he must tighten his turn, which increases his angel of attack. It is difficult for him to pull his nose around at high angels of attack to achieve a firing soultion. The defender should also alter his plane of flight to make himself a more difficult target.
Two forms of break are possible. Depending on the circumstances of the attack. The defender can use a maximum-rate sustained turn in which he does not lose speed, or the hardest possible turn in which he almost certainly does. The speed loss attendant on the turn aids his chances of forcing the attacker to overshoot, as does the smaller radius of the turn, but oftquoted maxims such as "speed is life" act as an inhibitor. If the break succeeds in forceing the attacker to overshoot.
Barrel Roll
The BARREL ROLL is a maneuver that causes the aircraft to roll around a central axis (usually the previous flight path), thus making a shape somewhat like a barrel. This maneuver has very powerful effects on energy management. Because of this, it can be used in both an offensive or defensive manner.
Figure 8 - 2
Offensive Barrel Roll
The Offensive Barrel Roll is typically used to slow down to prevent an over shoot. I talked in Chapter 4 about bleeding speed, using flaps, air brakes even landing gear for drag, this is another effective way to bleed speed. However, if you do not bleed speed fast enough, this will almost certainly put you into a Scissors fight. (The area of Chapter 4 that we discussed bleeding speed).
You may be able to avoid this situation by pulling even harder on the stick and reversing your turn.
This will turn you away from the target, and prevent you from overshooting. As you finish the turn, you should be back on your original heading, but slower.
Defensive Barrel Roll
While you can offensively use the Barrel Roll to bleed speed, you can use it the same way defensively. You can cause the attacker to overshoot, or at least force him into a Scissors fight - a much better option verses having him on your six. (There will be those that disagree with this, but I would much rather have a bandit on my 3 than on my 6). You may use the Barrel Roll to keep your aircraft out of the attackers fire cone.
The biggest difference between offensive and defensive is that the defensive maneuver must be timed carefully. Too soon, and your little playmate will just follow you through the maneuver. Too late and he may have already had several shots at you. Timing for surprise is critical. Do not count on this to get your attacker to over shoot, this is no where near as effective as the movies makes it look.
The High G Barrel Roll
This maneuvre is used against an attacker closing fast from astern. It starts with a break, then a roll in the direction to the break. The fact that it is a high g maneuvre means that quite a lot of speed is lost, up to 100 knots in some cases, particulary if performed "over the top."
If the attacker is closing fast and is caught by surprise he may easily fly through and end up in front, the postions reversed. If he attempts to follow the barrel roll, he will probally end up high and wide of the defender who can then turn in towards him, forcing him down and in front. But woe betide the defender who attempts a barrel roll in front of a slowly closing attacker who will follow him through the manoeuvre, ending on his tail easy gun range. His only recourse in this event is to jink.
The High G Barrel Roll is a difficult maneuvre to execute successfully, and is in fact easy for the attacker to counter. It will only work if the attacker has been led into, or is in, a high angle-off, high overtake situation.
Scissors
Scissoring is caused when an attacker overshoots his target and the target reverses his turn before the attacker has passed into weapons parameters. While it is generally accepted that you should never enter a Scissors fight, I already mentioned one instance where I would rather be in a Scissors fight (at least in a Scissors, he is not on my 6). Scissors fights bleed speed and altitude rapidly and can put one or both of the participants in very compromising situations.
Figure 8 - 3
As Figure 8 - 3 shows, a Scissors fight is a series of reversing break turns into the opponent. The idea behind these turns is to slow down faster than the opponent does in order to force him out front. In Figure 8 - 3, the Pink Jet has over shot the Blue Jet. The Scissoring action has allowed the Blue Jet to force the Pink Jet in front, thus allowing the Blue Jet the advantage. Think of this as a "brake race". The aircraft that can slow down quicker, wins.
A Scissors fight is begun when the defender does the right thing, at the wrong time. The defender turns into the attacker, but begins his maneuver too soon. The defender should wait for the attacker to over shoot and cross into his weapons envelope before turning into the attacker. If you're the attacker, you can cause the initiation of a Scissors fight by starting your maneuver too late, and then over shooting.
Once you are in a Scissors fight, you are locked in. There is really nothing else you can do but continue turning into the opponent. A Scissors fight will slow forward velocity as each turn is executed, compound this with the fact that your goal here is to slow down faster than the other guy, and you can drop into a stall pretty quick. The winner will be the pilot that can force the opponent out in front while conserving enough energy to pull his nose around and take a shot. It is not uncommon for a turning fight to end with one aircraft stalling and falling out of the fight. If his opponent has enough energy conserved, he can then roll over and dive for the kill.
You may be able to disengage from a Scissors fight by not reversing your turn and pulling away very hard. I would watch my opponent, and as he starts his next Break Turn into me, I would continue my pull through without turning back into him. I would also point my nose towards the ground for an increase in speed, which by this point is probably pretty low. This tactic is very dangerous, and your only real hope of it working is your opponent is too low on energy to compensate for the change, or he is clueless.
This maneuver gives you the maximum amount of time before my opponent can recover from my ruse and pursue me once again. Your only other option would be a Split S maneuver (described later in this chapter). However, this will not work unless your opponent is "Winchester" missiles. If he is guns only, you can use "Gods G" to pull away. The increased acceleration you generate in a Spit S will allow you to out run his guns range. If your opponent has a Heat Seeker, you will get one stuffed up your exhaust pipe when you try this maneuver.
Last comment on Scissors fights. There is a high level of danger during a Scissors fight for a mid air collision. If you create more separation to lessen the potential of a mid air, you increase the opportunity for a shot by your opponent. There is a fine line here that you will need to practice to find. You may be able to play "chicken" with your human adversaries by trying to get in close. As he maneuvers to keep separation, he will not be honoring the threat.
Breaking a stalemate in Scissors
The scissors is a very complicated maneuver, however, once learned, it is a very effective defensive and even offensive maneuver. The main goal for the attacker is to cross his opponents extended 6 O'Clock position at the lowest possible HCA (Heading Crossing Angle) in his rear hemisphere and thereby maintaining his offensive position. The main goal of the defender is to try to turn into his opponent to get him to cross at a high HCA at a high rate of closure. The scissors usually develops after one turn of the One Circle verity. In fact the scissors is a series of One Circle turns therefore the tactics and techniques in the One Circle turn apply to the scissors. The defender turns into his opponent to maximize the attackers HCA at the overshoot (Crossing the defender's extended 6 O'clock position) The defender now has to things going for him. The attacker is now closing at a high rate, and his target is crossing his horizontal field of vision at the highest possible LOS rate. This can effectively degrade the attackers aiming solution. The preferred HCA is at 90° to the attacker, which generates a high LOS rate for the attacker. Any further turning can actually help the attackers aim by decreasing LOS rate. Pulling to this high angle should decrease the defenders speed relative to the attacker causing him to close even faster, increasing the likelihood of a large overshoot. If the attacker does overshoot, a reversal is in order, to maintain sight and for AA considerations. Because of the defenders hard break into the attack, there is a great likelihood that he is slower and turning tighter. He may be able to turn inside the attacker after the overshoot. If he does turn inside, another reversal is in order to decrease HCA at the overshoot which needs to be timed perfectly. Too early and he could fly out in front of the attacker; too late and the Two Circle may be induced by the attacker which will be at his advantage because of his faster speed. If the overshoot isn't large, the defender now has gained the upper hand and is now the attacker. The new attacker job is to try to minimize HCA in each turn of the scissors. When HCA becomes low enough, the attacker should be able to to turn in-phase with the defender terminating the scissors.
The Vertical Rolling Scissors
This is similar to the scissors, but it is carried out in either a steep climb or dive and the reversals are often carried out by executing a complete barrel roll. The ascending vertical rollingscissors places the fighters with the better zoom climb (or the higher initial energy state) at a disadvantage at first. Otherwise the fighter with the best sustained rate of climb will have the advantage. If in a desending vertical rolling scissors the defender finds himself forced bleow his adversary he should attempt to place himself directly beneath his oppenent and manoeuvre in phase with him. In this position he cannot be seen and can pick his moment to disengage with a split S.It should be noted, however, that the defender may not be able to gain the advantage in one or two turns in the scissors. It also should be noted that each turn subjects the defender to a snap shot which can be very deadly. The defender may want to make each turn nose low, then nose high to avoid a snap shot and to make his future position unpredictable. The scissors is most effective against a opponent in a inferior turning fighter (high wing loading). It is very dangerous against a superior turning opponent and should not be considered as a viable option. The scissors could be made nose high to decrease the horizontal component of his flight path, and to decrease speed to turn tighter. Quickness is important in reversals as roll rate is very important in changing your lift vector's position to gain an advantage or to force an overshoot.
The best counter to the scissors is to refuse to turn with the opponent. Either pull up to gain energy (altitude) or lag roll above each reversal. The lag roll allows you to maintain an energy advantage above and behind the opponent. The Lag roll, however, should not be done too high because it could allow for the opponent to unload and extend to escape.
Spiral Dive
A Spiral Dive is usually not the best choice of maneuvers. You should only consider this if you have a better turning radius. To execute, you must drop into a steep dive and pull very high G's. Throttle back about mid way through your turn and then roll your lift vector onto the bandit and pull as hard as you can (CRASH Rule of Pulling G's). This should hopefully put you on the tail of your opponent.
Figure 8 - 4
When do you want to use this maneuver? First, have you tried everything else you know to shake this opponent? Do you have a superior turn radius? Once you start this dive, plan to pull out of it soon, it won't take long for him to reacquire a position of or possible attack. Watch as he follows you into your dive, as he crosses to one side of your tail and begins to go into an overshoot situation, he will not have a shot at you. But again, this will not last for very long.
Dive like this for only a very short time, then end it sharply by pulling back hard, but not so hard that you bleed to much speed or sacrifice maneuverability. You will be decreasing the turn circle as you do this. The slower turning opponent will start to drift out wide. At this point, your attacker probably has not noticed that you have slowed down considerably and will be forced into an overshoot.
As you pull out of the turn, reduce throttle, and invert (roll a complete 180°) and pull hard again, this will be back into the bandit. Your opponent will get a sudden jolt when he sees you reverse and realizes he is helpless to counter it. At this point you can use your reverse to come back around on the bandit and line HIM up for a shot.
High Yo-Yo:
The high Yo-Yo is one of the basic and fundamental Air Combat Maneuvers. You have probably done this several times with out even realizing you are doing it. The Yo-Yo will allow you to decrease your AoT (Angle off tail) at the expense of distance to your target. You would execute a High Yo-Yo when you are in the aggressive position, on the bandits 6, but are unable to bring your guns to bear to enable a shot. The High Yo-Yo allows you to use Gods G (gravity) to effect the change necessary to line up your target.
You will want to ease up on your turn as the bandit initiates his break turn. Stay in a slight Lag Pursuit. Pull your nose up slightly and climb. Watch your speed and distance to the target, you do not want to climb to fast and bleed speed too much or get too far away from your bandit. Also, if the bandit notices your climb, he may take counter measures to avoid your plans. If you are in a steep climb, your ability to make maneuver changes to compensate for this will be much less. Be patient and take small bites at this. I have taken several small High Yo-Yo's to creep in on a bandit for the kill.
Figure 8 - 5
At the apex of your climb, invert and pull back down into the bandit. You should now be at a much better AoT (lined up more with the bandits flight path) and a bit farther away.
When the attacker realises that he is unable to stay on the inside on the defender's turn, he relaxes his angle of bank a little, then pulls high. As he comes over the top he is inverted, looking down at his opponent through the top of his canopy. His speed falls due to the climb, and this disminishews his radius of turn. The 1g of gravity is utilized by turning in the vertical plane, which reduces the raidus of turn still further. The attacker sholud the be well placed to slide down into a fireing position.
The high-speed yoyo is a very difficult maneuvre to preform well, and demands perfect timing and precise execution. If it is commenced too early, the defender can counter by pulling up into the attack. If started too late, the attacker is forced to pull up at an excessively steep angel to avoid overshooting. This allows the defender to disengage by diving away. A common fult in executing the high-speed yoyo is not pulling the nose high enough. This can result in the attacker ending dircetly above the defender. Some pilots find that they can obtain better results from a series of small yoyos than one large one. A variant on this maneuvre, used to prevent overshooting or to reduce the angle-off is the rollaway
Roll Away
A slight variation of the High Yo-Yo, the Roll Away has you Roll Away form the target at the apex. As you reach the apex, roll and dive, you can continue to roll and come in behind the bandit. This is most useful if you are on the bandits 6, but a little hot and fear and overshoot.
Figure 8 - 6
As the attacker reaches the top of the yoyo, he rolls in the opposite direction to the defender's turn.This has the effect of pulling him tighter behind the defender.
A perfectly executed high-speed yoyo is very difficult to counter. However, there are a few tricks that the defending pilot can try. If his enery state is high enough, he can pull up into the attack, but would risk depleting his energy reserves to the point where he can no longer effectively defend himself. Alternatively, as the attacker pulls up his nose, the defender can relax his turn and spiral wide at full throttle. This would hopefuuly increase his speed and widen the distance. Then when the attacker comes down, the defender breaks and the situation returns to square one. However, if the attacker has misjudged his maneuvre and rolls out close astern but high, the defender relaxes his turn to maintain speed; then, when the attacker drops his nose and dives, the defender is able to reverse hard up into him. The secound answer to overshooting is"Lag pursuit"
Low Yo-Yo
The Low Yo-Yo is the same concept of the High Yo-Yo but in the reverse. You dive first and then climb. This would be used in the event you were on the bandits 6, but needed to close in. So in this case, you would decrease the AoT still, but get closer instead of farther away.
Figure 8 - 7
All of the same rules apply here, don't get overly aggressive with your maneuver. Patiently move in with small bites. In a Low Yo-Yo, an overly aggressive move will put you out of position and less likely to recover much quicker than a High Yo-Yo.
Once you have used the Low Yo-Yo to gain ground, you may have to use a slight High Yo-Yo to regain weapons parameters.
Watch for your target to roll out and away from his turn. If he does this, at the end of your maneuver, you will be approaching a head on merge pass. Always watch what your opponent is doing and alter you plans accordingly.
Another combat situation which can arise is a stalemate in either a tail chase or turning match. To break the stalemate, a low-speed yoyo is used. This is based on the age-old concept of trading height for speed. If the pursuer finds that he is unable to close to within shooting range in straight flight, he can gain extra speed in a shallow dive. This will allow him to close the horizontal distance and takes him into his opponent's blind spot at six o'clock low. When a suitable position and overtaking speed can be attained, the pursuer can pull up and attack. The counter? Keep a good lookout behind!
More often, the low-speed yoyo is uded to break a stalemate in a turning fight. Tha attacker drops his nose to the inside of the turn, then cuts low across the circle before pulling up towards his opponent's six o'clock. The gain is often marginal, but repeating the process nibbles off a few degrees of angle each time, due to maneuvreing in the vertical plane. The pull-up should be started when a position of about 30 degrees angle-off is reached. It is important that the angle of cut-off is correct or the attacker will arrive in a fly-through situation with too much angle-off as he approaches the targetr. If this happens then he must endeavour to pull up into a high-speed yoyo.
Defence against the low-speed yoyo takes two forms. The first is to copy the maneuvre while remainingin phase with the attacker. This maintains the stalemate. The secound counter is more psitive, The defendeing turn into his opponent.
If the attacking pilot has tried to lead the defender by too much or dived too low by being greedy, the defender can also pull up and barrel down onto the attacker.
The Barrel Roll Attack
This maneuvre differs from the defensive high-g barrel roll in that a great loss of speed to force an attacking fighter to overshoot is not necessary. The g forces can therefore often be quite small. Closely resembling the rollaway, the barrel roll attack is used to alter the angel of approach to the defender without losing a lot of speed. It is used when the attacker becomes aware that he is going to overshoota turning target. He rolls away the wings level, pulling the nose hard up, then rolls away from the direction of turn. This three-dimensional maneuvre is completed by sliding in astern of the target.
The counter to a well executed barrel roll attack is for the defender to dive away and increase speed. While doing this he must keep a sharp lookout for a missile attack and be ready to evade it. If he reverses his turn, he will probally set himself up for a gun attack
Immelman
While the Immelman is not really a true Air Combat Maneuver, it is a very handy tool and can help you set up for an engagement. It also uses several tools that can be applied in other situations. Basically the Immelman is a quick way to change direction while increasing altitude. It is very helpful for low thrust aircraft, but can be used by high thrust aircraft with a vertical climb to great effect as well.
The aircraft in figure 8-8 is heading towards you. It pulls up into the vertical, and then pirouettes, in this case 90 degrees. The pilot then pulls back on the stick to inverted level flight and subsequently rolls back to vertical. The aircraft has now gained altitude as well as changed direction 90 degrees.
Figure 8 - 8
The Immelmann (named for the WWI German ace Max Immelmann, who is credited with its invention) is the exact opposite of the split esse. You start in level flight and pull back on the stick, doing the first (upward) half of a loop. At the top, roll until you are upright.
I want to point out the pirouette in this maneuver. We have discussed this before, but this gives you a good graphical representation of what it looks like. Use this when you are looking for a bandit while in a fur ball. Once you tally him, pull towards him.
Split - S
The Split S is a diving half loop that uses Gods G to it's full potential. This is an excellent maneuver to use in a situation where you want to disengage. This is a high altitude maneuver. You need to have a lot of ground below you before you begin this maneuver.
Figure 8 - 9
In this the defender rolls inverted and dives away vertically, pulling out in a direction opposite to that of his opponent.
During a turn, roll inverted then pull back hard which will drive you towards the ground. Remember, pulling into the direction of the earth increases your effective G by 1, so a 6 G turn is now a 7 G turn. Continue the pull until you are level. Ease off the stick as you come out of the half loop. You will have gained a great deal of airspeed, lowered your altitude and be upright in level flight.
The Split S gives you a sudden burst of speed, and if executed well, can surprise a bandit on your 6 and allow you to extend. Don't try this if the guy on your 6 has a heat seeker, or you will be his next kill. In a guns only environment, it is an excellent maneuver. It also works well to change direction for out running missiles.
Skills Needed to become a Combat Pilot
The foregoing are the basics of air combat maneuvering. Many variations on the described maneuvres exist, but they are percisely that: variations. No air-display-type aerobatics have been included, because they are irrelevant to air combat. But, however skiful a pilot may be at air combat maneuvering, his ability must be backed up by knowledge and awareness of other factors affecting the contest.
The first essential is to know the strengths and weakness of his own machine and be able to compare them against the fighting qualities of his oppenent's aircraft. For example, it would be foolish for a Phantom to ebgage in a prolonged turning contest with a MiG-21 at about equal airspeed as the MiG-21 has by far the better turning capability.
We must always remember that air combats are lost rather then won. Air combat maneuvering is not a series of magic formulae, one of which can be plucked from a hat to meet a given situation and guarantee a successful engagement. Rather is it a means to an end. It is important to avoid making mistakes, and equally- if not more- important to force the oppenent into making mistakes by keeping him under pressure, If the oppenent can be forced into a series of energy-dissipating hard turns, he will become increasingly unable to defend himself effectively. Pressure is kept on by positive and decisive maneuvreing.
The term aggressive has been deliberately avoided, as aggression is a double-edged sword. Too much aggression can lead to mental tunnel vision: total preoccupation with obtaining the kill. If other hostile fighters are near, this can easily prove disastrous.
Probally the most common fault of a novice fighter pilot is depleting his energy state to a level where his ability to maneuvre has all but vanished. He should endeavour to keep his speed up near the corner velocity for his aeroplane if at all possible. The old saying, "out of altitude, airspeed, and ideas" is very true; every fighter pilot has at one time or another been faced with a situation where he has run out of ideas. In this situation, his only recourse is to attempt to point his nose at the enemy.
Also, trite though it may sound, he should never give up. This is not as peculiar as it first seems; the records of air warfare give many examples of flyers who did give up and presented their victor with an easy target. The extreme emotional, physical, and psychological stress of air combat accounts for this phenomenon. With a bandit neatly trapped at the six o'clock, the position may appear hopeless, but he has not lost yet. The attacker has still to slove the problems of closure rate, range and deflection, missile firing limitations, and even setting the correct switches. If the defender can keep the attacker busy by just staying in a favourable position, the defender's chances of survival increase considerably.
