Air Combat Maneuvering
Flight Procedures
FLIGHT PROCEDURES
OFFENSIVE
As an offensive fighter, you have more to consider when engaging a bandit than simply putting the
pipper on and pulling the trigger. Our missiles are highly capable when launched within parameters,
but they are not infallible. There are many reasons why a valid missile shot might fail to kill a bandit.
Try as we may, we will never achieve a 100% Pk (probability of a kill)—ever. When the weapon
being employed is the gun, our Pk is reduced even further.
For this reason, it is important for an offensive fighter to consider the effect upon his degree of
offensiveness that any particular move will have. It wouldn’t make much sense to gamble all of his
position advantage on a shot that might only achieve a kill half the time. What happens if he
misses?
Killing the bandit is obviously our primary objective when we engage. The quicker, the better. But
there must also be a secondary objective—to control the bandit. We want to maintain our offensive
position for as long as it takes to find a weapon that will kill him. That weapon can be anything we
bring with us to the fight, including our wingman. Several concepts will help you to achieve these
objectives.
“Bubble”—this is the bandit’s max performance turn circle in any given plane of motion (Figure 7).
The Post
The Bubble
Figure 7: THE BUBBLE
(10-98) Original
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