This is sort of a companion article to the missile avoidance advice given in issue # 15. The topic for this issue is defensive flying; another subject not easily addressed by confident pilots. Most anything you read about air combat will extol the virtues of flying aggressively, taking charge of the situation, and killing the opponent. This is all well and good, but it is not a complete picture. Modem air- to-air weapons are lethal, period. They are dangerous and can be operated by even the most rank novice pilots.
If you go into harms way in your attempt to secure the blessings of fame and glory for yourself, you win sooner or later come out of a smoking aircraft remnant. At the very least, every pilot should have a good stable of defensive maneuvers to enable him to get back on the offensive as soon as possible.
Reverse Roles
If you're a good pilot, you know exactly what you don't want to see the other guy do. If you're on the defensive, you should do exactly that. Put yourself in the other pilot's cockpit and ask yourself, "what would really annoy this guy and make his shot tougher or impossible?" You don't have to know his weapons parameters exactly to estimate what the firing ranges and arcs are likely to be.
If you are first to move (as is often the case when you are on the defensive), don't forget that the other guys will be able to take advantage of any opportunity you leave him. Try not to leave him any if you can. The most common mistake I've seen along these lines is a pilot who assumes his attacker will do the same thing he's been doing. That is, if he's on the inside of right turn, the defender assumes that the attacker will continue the right turn and flies to beat that particular maneuver. He usually looks very surprised when the attacker changes his tactics and gets a great shot.
Work The Wing Line
The defender's number one priority should be to escape weapon's parameters. His number two priority should be to get the attacker into his forward hemisphere. Your options increase significantly when you can get your nose onto someone, even if you can't get weapons on him immediately. You should practically stop at nothing to get the attacker out in front. Concerns about energy, tactical advantage, rear support and mission objectives should all take a back seat. If you're on a bomb run, getting the attacker out in front usually gives you time to get away from the ground-based defenses. If you have to deal with both an air threat and a ground threat at the same time, you are almost certainly toast.
Use Your Wingman
Remember him? He's the guy that you spend the majority of your time yelling at over the radio. When many alternative defensive maneuvers present themselves, use the one that places your attacker in the most compromising position with respect to your wingman. Your attacker may be a fangs-out, bloodthirsty maniac with delusions of godhood, but if he gets a Lima launched at him, his attitude will change dramatically.
The best way to get rapid help is to break away from your wingman. I know that's unnatural, but with missile-equipped planes, this works (try it!). If you break into your wingman you help your attacker break into him as well. Since your best defensive maneuver is usually to break into an attack, you've just helped your attacker neutralize your support. By breaking away from your wingman, you get the attacker to expose his tail. Just the threat of that may be enough to get him to reconsider and let you off the hook.
Avoid Stalling
No, I don't mean "insufficient airspeed", I mean wasting time. Certain classes of maneuvers (the vertical diving rolling scissors comes to mind immediately) allow you to prevent the attacker from getting an immediate shot in return for not improving your position substantially.
The trouble is that these sorts of maneuvers to not be repeatable indefinitely. You'll eventually reach the ground, or run out of airspeed, or depart, or something unpleasant. When that occurs your patient attacker (remember Iceman?) will hose you off, but good.
Whatever maneuver you choose, it should leave you better off than you were the previous turn. If you only maintain you current poor position, you give more opportunities for ground fire to get you, or your wingman to get shot away, or for another attacker to get off the killing shot.
Pull Out The Stops
You have to get serious about defensive flying. This is what those ET turns are for (you're not giving up a shot, remember?). Now is the time to do rolling maneuvers, snap turns, and VEFFs in your Harrier. Idle power (to kill a speed and get a better turning radius), zoom climb (to tighten your radius of turn), and ET into the attacker? Why not? If the situation calls for it, you should be unconcerned about violent maneuvers.
Mind you, you should also be aware of the limitations of your aircraft and should avoid departing controlled flight, but defensive flying calls for no half-measures. Once the bad guy pops out in front, you can worry about energy and heading and all those other non-essentials. You may even have an opportunity to geta shot, but that too is secondary (he's probably in better shape to defend than you are to attack, n'est pas?) Just don't ever go down thinking, "if I'd only pulled a little harder..."
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© Copyright 1991 by J.D. Webster
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