Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

370 TACTICAL INTERCEPTS
and positioning of the sweep and bracket options gain tactical advantage at
the expense of defensive mutual support. In addition, the FQ or sternconversion
geometry allows greater enemy raid penetration than head-on
or collision geometry. The intercept mechanics for this geometry are also
more difficult and complex, and they are more vulnerable to bogey jinks at
long range. Late bogey jinks tend to confuse the attack geometry and
timing, but an attack might still be salvaged by fancy fighter footwork,
provided the jink can be detected quickly.
Break-Away
With an inferior weapon system you cannot fight a superior one. You can
have surprise success but not success for a long time.
Lt. General Adolph Galland, Luftwaffe
Description
In the game of air combat, the break-away is what might be called a
"stunt" or a "trick" tactic. Its purpose is to deceive and confuse enemy
fighter and GCI radars, to degrade the bogey's situational awareness at the
merge, and to get at least one fighter into the merge unobserved. One
variation of this tactic is depicted in Figure 10-14.
At time "1" the fighters are in a fairly tight formation so that, on the
enemy's airborne and GCI radars, they appear as only one target outside
visual range of the bogeys. The maximum allowable separation may be
only a few feet, or it may be many hundreds of feet, depending on the
characteristics of the specific threat radars. This tactic should induce some
doubt in the enemy as to just how many fighters they will be engaging.
Once the bogeys are detected, the fighters turn as necessary to establish
collision geometry. If there is sufficient range, either head-on or FQ intercept
techniques may be employed instead. At time "2" the fighters are still
outside the bogeys' visual range, but they are approaching the final stages
of the intercept, where the enemy can be expected to be taking radar locks
for their attack. This typically occurs by the time the fighters are within
one minute to intercept, but the timing can vary widely. The fighters'
Figure 10-14. The Break-Away