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Dogfight
Aerial combat is seen as one of the most exciting aspects of the military world involving specific aircraft maneuvers. These are high speed, dangerous, and skillfully executed moves which can determine life or death in the air. The art of dogfighting requires a killer instinct and an intimate understanding of aircraft handling.
But how do fighter pilots engage in a dogfight? Is it similar to how it is portrayed in movies?
Adam Daymude, former US Navy EA-18G Growler pilot, explains on Quora;
‘Second question first: not even close. There WERE a couple of dogfighting scenes in Top Gun Maverick (TGM) that were very accurate WRT what you would see in a dogfight. But those flashes of reality were then followed by Hollywood doing what it does.
‘What you see above is two aircraft, an F-16 and F-14, approaching what we call the merge. That’s just when two planes arrive close to each other ready to get it on. This looks like a pretty neutral merge, meaning neither aircraft has a positional or angles advantage*.
‘As for how we actually engage in a dogfight, you most likely screwed up somewhere. We shoot and kill at distance now. If you’ve arrived at the merge, you’re gonna have some splaining to do. But let’s pretend we’re 80 years ago and the only real way to take out an aircraft was in close.
Ignoring the all aspect IR missiles
‘Our tactics, as I said earlier, set us up to kill at a distance. But if that breaks down, and we absolutely must go forward, those same tactics help us to arrive at the merge in an advantageous situation.
‘For argument’s sake, let’s ignore the all aspect IR missiles, AIM-9X and AA-11 Archer, that can shoot you in the face before you even get to the merge. Our tactics help us get to a good energy state going into the merge. It’s all about numbers, my friends. Flying by the seat of your pants will get you killed pretty quickly. We fly anally retentive numbers, thinking three steps forward. We fly with discipline honed over SO many training hops.’
MiG-23 launched out of Tripoli
He continues;
‘Fun anecdote time. Here’s the setting:
• Libya 2000’s
• First night of NATO attempting to hop in and stabilize during the Arab Spring
• Minimal intel with a likely air threat
‘A MiG-23 launched out of Tripoli, Gaddafi’s stronghold. I had it on RADAR basically as soon as it took off. Most of our assets were over by Benghazi but AWACS saw a couple of A-A missiles on us and told us to commit. That’s pilot speak for going after a bad guy.
‘We committed but due to ROE, couldn’t shoot without a positive ID. I lit that bitch up with as much RADAR energy as I could trying to tell him don’t F with me. He kept going straight for us, or at least that’s what we thought at the time. We ran our timeline, he lost us, and about a minute later, I was snuggled up at his six. I could’ve shot him down at any time. But we followed him. He was a defector flying a plane to the rebels. Glad I used some discretion and wasn’t Tom Cruise shooting down anything close to me.
Dogfight makes for exciting movies
‘Dogfights make for exciting movies; hell, my hair was on end watching TGM. But real-world fights are boring AF. There’s very few G’s pulled, you’re probably not even going to see your opponent until they burst into flames from your superior missiles, and if you do end up getting to a merge, your wingman will break away to get some distance while you fight off any shots from the bad guy. Your wingman will get the kill, though. They’re going to reverse and get back into the fight with a super juicy target that you’ve set them up with. Both of us have to live and breathe these tactics though. A small screw up, and if your opponent is worth his weight in salt, you’re gonna die. It’s for this reason that we continue to train to dogfighting.’
Daymude concludes;
‘War is absolute chaos. As Mike Tyson famously said, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. We plan to get punched in the mouth. We game-plan every scenario we can think the enemy will try, and then train against that.’
Note: An advantage at the merge can be one or more of the following head starts:
- You’re more pointed at your opponent than they are at you. That’s an angle advantage because I don’t have to turn as far my opponent to get to a firing solution.
- You’re going faster than them. Not too fast though. That means you have an energy advantage and can take them high, where they can’t follow.
- You have more altitude. That’s potential energy waiting to be used.
Photo credit: U.S. Navy
