Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

FIGHTER WEAPONS 55
speed targets. Higher altitudes tend to reduce missile maneuverability and
increase reaction time.
Particularly with rear-quarter AAMs, but also to some extent with
all-aspect missiles, a further benefit of a target speed advantage is the
increased difficulty encountered by an unseen attacker in placing his
aircraft within the envelope and satisfying his aiming requirements in the
reduced time made available by a faster target. Especially with short-range
rear-quarter weapons, for an attacker to have a reasonable chance of
achieving a firing position on a nonmaneuvering target, he must be in an
ideal position even before the target is detected visually.
Aircraft designers can decrease fighter vulnerability to missile attack by
using many camouflage and suppression techniques. These include reducing
the aircraft's radar reflectivity by using nonreflecting materials and
radar-absorbing paint, when practical. Reflectivity is also sensitive to
engine inlet design and placement, and to the physical size and shape of
various aircraft parts. IR signatures can be suppressed by using special
jet-nozzle designs, by monitoring exhaust placement, by using engines
with cooler exhausts, and by adding chemicals to the exhaust. Even optical
tracking can be made more difficult by using camouflage techniques that
reduce the aircraft's contrast with the background.
Besides reducing the size of his vulnerable envelope, the target has other
means of preventing a missile shot. Countering an attacker's attempts to
satisfy his aiming requirements is a matter of generating LOS rates that
exceed the shooter's turn capability. The techniques involved with this are
discussed in much greater detail in the chapters on maneuvering.
The weapon where the man is sitting in is always superior against the other.
Colonel Erich "Bubi" Hartmann, GAF
Denying the attacker a favorable target aspect is also a function of
maneuvering. This is one of the primary defenses against weapons with a
limited-aspect capability, such as rear-quarter heat seekers. Obviously,
such a defense is more difficult to accomplish against all-aspect missiles.
Some aspects, however, are less favorable than others for almost any
weapon. We have already discussed the problems encountered with
Doppler-guided missiles and beam aspects, especially in look-down situations.
Special limitations of particular weapons, such as this one, often
may be exploited to prevent or degrade a shot. For example, power reductions
and IR-masking techniques can be used at critical times to prevent or
delay heat-seeking missile acquisition, and to degrade guidance after
launch.
A special problem encountered by most radar tracking systems is
known as glint. This is a phenomenon that may cause the radar to shift
auto-track among several targets that have approximately the same range
(pulse radars) or closing velocity (Doppler radars) and that are closely
spaced along the LOS of the tracking beam. The radar may tend to lock on
one target, then another, in a random, unpredictable manner. In the case of
very large targets, the radar may shift lock from one part of the aircraft to
another continuously. A missile relying on such a radar for guidance often