Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

206 SECTION TACTICS. TWOVERSUS-ONE
Figure 5-4. The Sandwich
the attack, as shown here, it quickly becomes sandwiched by the second
fighter.
The sandwich is an ideal defensive maneuver when the threatened
fighter can be identified early in the attack. This identification is made
easier by the wider cruise formations available with the double attack
doctrine. When the bogey does not commit clearly to one fighter early in
its attack, a "defensive split" may be used to force the attacker's hand. This
technique is illustrated in Figure 5-5.
In this scenario the fighter section is cruising in combat spread, line
abreast, when a bogey is detected closing from six o'clock at time "1." The
attacker's position between the fighters, and the relatively long range,
makes it difficult to determine which of the fighters the bogey pilot
intends to attack. Therefore the fighters take a defensive split north and
south, turning away from each other. Assuming the attacker is still beyond
the range of his weapons, these turns can be of the energy-sustaining
variety rather than break turns. The defensive split quickly forces the
attacker to commit to one fighter or the other, and, in pressing the attack
on one fighter, the bogey must turn its tail to the other, often causing the
attacker to lose sight of the free fighter. In this engagement the northern
fighter is engaged more heavily and is definitely defensive. The defender
can expect to be fired on around time "2" if the bogey is carrying all-aspect
missiles, and he almost certainly will be required to perform a guns defense
at about time "3" against a gun-equipped attacker.
The bogey's overshoot between times "3" and "4" leaves the engagedfighter
pilot (assuming he has survived to this point) with the options of
either continuing his turn, as shown, or reversing nose-to-nose, setting up