Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

232 SECTION TACTICS, TWOVERSUS-ONE
when the pilot of the free bogey (northern bogey in this case) reacts quickly
to the single fighter's turn away from him. Figure 5-15 shows this situation.
As in the previous scenario, the bogey section splits at time "1" and
the fighter responds with a turn to the south. This time, however, the
northern bogey reacts quickly, turning back to close the singleton and
apply immediate pressure. If the defender continues in his attempt to get
outside the southern bogey, the northern bogey will achieve a very threatening
position. Again the defender delays as long as possible, and then
turns hard left to negate the attack of the northern bogey (time "2"). In so
doing, the singleton must turn away from the southern bogey, giving it
lateral separation and probably some position advantage. In this case the
pilot of the southern bogey chooses to take advantage of this lateral
separation, turning across the fighter's tail and arriving in a nose-to-nose
position at time "3."
The singleton's situation at time "3" is heavily dependent on the
weapons involved and the relative performance of the aircraft. When the
singleton is faster, it may be able to escape, as shown by the broken flight
path to point "4'." If the singleton is slower, the defender may not have the
option of escaping, but his fighter's very lack of speed and probable turnradius
advantage can be used to pounce on the engaged bogey (the original
southern bogey), which has turned nose-to-nose. The free bogey (original
northern bogey) overshot and has been spit out of the fight. This gives the
singleton pilot a considerable amount of time to concentrate on the engaged
bogey before the free bogey can become a threat again. A gun would
be very valuable to the singleton in this situation, since this weapon would
probably yield quickest results against the engaged bogey in the flat or
rolling scissors that is likely to develop. The singleton's task here is to
destroy the engaged bogey quickly, but in so doing it should not get so slow
that defense against the free bogey becomes impossible. The pilot of the
Figure 5-15. Defending against a Bracket: Case 2