Air combat manoeuvring

Indian Air Force's Sukhoi Su-30MKIs during a Thach Weave maneuver.

Air combat Maneuvring (ACM) is the art of maneuvering a combat aircraft in order to attain a position from which an attack can be made on another aircraft. It relies on offensive and defensive Basic Fighter maneuvering (BFM) in order to gain an advantage over an aerial opponent.

Historical Overview

Military aviation appeared in World War I where aircraft was used to spot enemy movement. The need to stop enemy aircraft reconnaissance rapidly led to the development of fighter planes, a class of aircraft designed specifically to destroy enemy aircraft. Fixed, forward-firing guns were found to be the most effective armament for most World War I era fighters.

Pilots achieved firing position while avoiding the threat of enemy guns by maneuvering behind the enemy aircraft. This is known as getting on an aircraft's six o'clock, or on his tail, plus a wide variety of other terms, usually coined by air crews. Oswald Boelcke, a German fighter ace during World War One, was the first to publish the basic rules for aerial combat maneuvering. He advised pilots to attack from the direction of the sun (towards which the defending pilot could not see), or to fly at a higher altitude than the opponent. Most of these rules, known as the Dicta Boelcke, are still as valuable nowadays as they were a century ago.

Today's air combat is much more complicated than those of older times, as air-to-air missiles and RADAR are used on virtually all modern fighter aircraft. New maneuvers have emerged, intending to break radar lock by minimizing Doppler signature of own aircraft ("keeping enemy at 3 or 9 o'clock"), or to exhaust the kinetic energy of incoming missile (changing course from side to side - the missile, not flying directly at target but trying to forestall it, will make sharper turns and eventually have to fly a longer path). However, close range fighting with IR guided missiles like the AIM-9 Sidewinder and aircraft cannons still obey the same general rules laid down in the skies over Europe in the early 20th century. The master rule is still the same: do not let your opponent get on your six o'clock, while attempting to get on his.

Close-range combat tactics vary considerably according to the type of aircraft being used and the number of aircraft involved.

Example maneuvering

The Pugachev's Cobra as performed by the Su-27 Flanker

• Basic:
  • Split S
  • Immelmann turn
  • Thach Weave
  • Scissors
  • Chandelle
• Complex:
  • Pugachev's Cobra
  • Pugachev's Turn a.k.a. Cobra Turn
  • Kulbit
  • Herbst maneuver