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A dogfight or dog fight is a common term used to describe close-range aerial combat between military aircraft. The term originated during World War I, and probably derives from the preferred fighter tactic of positioning one's aircraft behind the enemy aircraft. From this position, a pilot could fire his guns on the enemy without having to lead the target, and the enemy aircraft could not effectively fire back. When two fighter aircraft circle each other trying to achieve this position, it resembles two dogs chasing each other's tails.
History
World War I
Dogfighting emerged in World War I. Aircraft were initially used as mobile observation vehicles and early pilots gave little thought to aerial combat—enemy pilots at first simply exchanged waves. Intrepid pilots decided to interfere with enemy reconnaissance by improvised means, including throwing bricks, grenades and sometimes rope, which they hoped would entangle the enemy plane's propeller. This progressed to pilots firing handheld guns at enemy planes. Once the guns were mountable to the plane due to the invention of synchronization gear in 1915, the era of air combat began.
During the first part of the war there was no established tactical doctrine for air-to-air combat. Oswald Boelcke was the first to analyze the tactics of aerial warfare, resulting in a set of rules known as the Dicta Boelcke. Many of Boelcke's concepts, conceived in 1916, are still applicable today, including use of sun and altitude, surprise attack, and turning to meet a threat.
World War II
During the first part of World War II, the basic ideas behind dogfighting changed little. However, the airplanes were improved drastically over their World War I counterparts. Aircraft like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Mitsubishi Zero surprised the allies with their superior maneuverability and speed. The Allied Forces would develop superior fighters, like the Supermarine Spitfire and F4U Corsair, later in the war.The Battle of Britain was largely determined by dogfighting between British and German fighters.
The Flying Tigers, led by Claire Chennault were among the first Allies to successfully counter Japanese fighters. Chennault interviewed Chinese pilots carefully and learned all he could about Japanese tactics and methods. He advised pilots to work in teams rather than alone. The P-40 Warhawk had pilot armor, self-sealing fuel tanks, sturdy construction, and powerful machine guns and a faster diving speed. They could defeat Zeros by remaining out of range and fighting on the dive and climb. By using speed and resisting the deadly error of trying to out-turn the Zero, eventually cannon could be brought to bear and a single burst of fire was usually enough. In a time when most of the news was of defeats, the AVG was officially credited with 297 enemy aircraft destroyed, with author Daniel Ford discounting the total to 115.
Another important maneuver was called the "Thach Weave", named after the man that invented it, then-LtCdr John S. "Jimmy" Thach. It required two planes, a leader and his wingman, to fly about 200 feet apart. When a Zero would latch onto the tail of one of the fighters, the two planes would turn toward each other. If the Zero followed its original target through the turn, it would come into a position to be fired on by his target's wingman. This tactic was used with spectacular results at the Battle of Midway in 1942, and helped make up for the inferiority of the US planes until new aircraft types were brought into service.
The main quality of perhaps the most important fighter of the war, the P-51 Mustang, was not that it was fast or maneuverable, but that after it was fitted the Merlin engine it had the range to escort B-17 bombers all the way into Germany and back, thus achieving air superiority over the enemy homeland.
Later in the war, in order to avoid heavy machine gun fire from bombers, the Germans armed their Me 262's with R4M air-to-air rockets. While this proved highly effective, the war was already effectively over. Soon after the war, both the United States and Soviet Union began development of air-to-air missiles. This increased the range on which planes could engage each other from a few hundred meters to 5–10 km. This distance increased as more advanced missiles entered service.
Modern air combat
Even in the jet age, modern air-to-air combat often develops into dog fights. Contrary to some common misconceptions, guided missile attacks occurring beyond visual range seldom occur, because rules of engagement usually require visual identification of the target as hostile. A fighter can usually evade a supersonic missile by turning faster than the missile can follow, if the pilot has excellent situational awareness, good anticipation of the attacker's moves, and is a master of angles and timing. Attempting to run away is the least effective survival choice. Supersonic head-on closure with the enemy while evading further missile flights may eventually achieve a tail-chase visual Gatling gun with firing range of less than one kilometer.
Superiority in a dog fight depends primarily on a pilot's experience and skill, and on the agility of his fighter when flown at minimum air speeds approaching loss of control (causing a danger of stalling); the winner typically plays to the strengths of his own aircraft while forcing his adversary to fly at a design disadvantage. Dogfights are generally contests to determine which pilot can fly the slowest while maintaining violent acrobatic control. A dogfight has nothing to do with supersonic speed, and much to do with the engine power that makes supersonic flight possible. The $280M F-22 Raptor can stand on its steerable nozzles at less than 100K airspeed, yet quickly maneuver to bring its M61 Vulcan cannon to bear on a nearby evasive target.
With modern air-to-air AMRAAM guided missiles greatly extending the general engagement range of jet fighters, some experts hypothesize that dogfighting may be headed toward extinction. Others criticize this view, citing as evidence the United States F-4 Phantom II. Early versions of the fighter (prior to the E model) relied solely on missiles, having no guns nor lead-computing Gyro gunsight, and were therefore very vulnerable in gun-range combat.
The continued importance of dogfighting was demonstrated during the Vietnam War. American pilots flew aircraft equipped with long-range missiles. However, air crews were adamantly denied permission to fire AIM-7 Sparrow missiles at radar targets without having visually identified the target first, thus completely losing this technological advantage. Lightweight, short-endurance, point-defense fighters such as the MiG-17 and MiG-21 are far more agile than heavy, long-range, strike fighters such as the F-105 Thunderchief. Still, using the element of surprise (the target did not see an attack coming), the AIM-9 Sidewinder short range missile, and cannon fire, American pilots gained significant victories in the air over North Vietnam.
Advanced missile technology has necessarily not spelled the end of the dog fight. However, the improvement of all-aspect IR missiles, coupled with Helmet-mounted sights, have removed the necessity of tail-chase attacks. In addition, Russian development of tail-mounted radars and rear-firing missiles have reduced the vulnerability to tail-chase attacks. Because this feature is only present on the most modern jets, and missiles are a finite resource, The US Navy (TOPGUN) and Air Force (Red Flag) continue to teach postgraduate level classes in air combat maneuvering engagements. Russian aircraft manufacturers heavily emphasize superagility and dogfight capabilities in fighter design, with aircraft such as the Su-37 or the Su-30MKI demonstrating advanced thrust vectoring systems to achieve these goals.
Fictional depictions
Although combat in space involves different considerations due to the lack of drag and gravity, science fiction films and space simulations often invoke analogies to aeronautical dogfighting to better relate to the audience's experience. Some Films and Games, such as Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, and I-War have tried to accurately model Newtonian physics and tactics in such an environment. For example, since a body will remain in motion without additional thrust, a fighter could orient itself to face directions other than its direction of travel, i.e. if being chased, a space fighter can make an 180 degree spin on its axis to shoot its forward guns at its pursuer, while still moving in its original direction.
See also
References
Footnotes
- Su-37 Flanker Report from Farnborough '96 (http://www.sci.fi/~fta/Su-27.htm)
"Dogfight"