104
votes
Accepted
If all fighter jets become stealthy, how will they fight each other in the future? In dogfights?
Table of contents
Future focii
Short answer - Important: stealth, sensors (radar & IR), data fusion, networking, long-range weapons. Unimportant: dogfighting with guns.
Future counter-...
- 3,964
54
votes
Accepted
Why don't combat aircraft have rear-facing *laser* weapons?
Such weapons are not used by countries that abide by the Geneva Convention:
It is prohibited to employ laser weapons specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat ...
- 10.6k
53
votes
Accepted
How do you win a simulated dogfight/Air-to-Air engagement?
Bear in mind that most of my maneuvering was done from a defensive position due to the aircraft I flew, and that my experience spanned a period 15-30 years ago. But, I have some perspective that may ...
- 24.9k
38
votes
Accepted
Were there any instances of aerial combat between helicopters?
Yes, there has:
In the Iran-Iraq War, Wikipedia:
The war also saw the only confirmed air-to-air helicopter battles in the history of warfare, with Iraqi Mi-25s flying against Iranian AH-1J SeaCobras ...
- 36k
32
votes
Accepted
How do aircraft differentiate between missile locks?
Non-holographic radar systems such as those used in fighter aircraft and active guided missiles only point in one direction at a time. Normally, when the radar is in search mode, a mechanism inside ...
- 12.6k
29
votes
If all fighter jets become stealthy, how will they fight each other in the future? In dogfights?
Using infrared sensors, a fast-moving airplane can be spotted at several 100 km distance if it flies high enough. The friction heating of the fuselage nose and leading edges will stick out against a ...
- 230k
27
votes
How did night fighter aircraft manage to shoot down their foes in World War II?
The night fighting in WWII was mainly between the RAF and Luftwaffe, with the Luftwaffe fielding most of the night fighters due to necessity (the others too had some fine night fighters, though none ...
- 100k
20
votes
How did night fighter aircraft manage to shoot down their foes in World War II?
There are so many inaccuracies and omissions in @aeroalias' answer that I take it upon myself to add another answer.
Early Years (1939 - 41)
Up until the start of the war, aircraft were located by ...
- 230k
16
votes
Accepted
Can a UAV defend itself?
The existing answers are, of course, correct that most current UAVs do not have much in the way of options for defending themselves against attacks by fighters. This, however, is due primarily to the ...
- 19.4k
15
votes
Accepted
What is the average speed used by modern jet fighters when in dogfight?
Modern Air Combat Maneuvering takes place between about 350 to 600 KIAS; There is no specific speed but each aircraft has a specific optimal cornering velocity which gives it the greatest rate of turn ...
- 72.8k
14
votes
How do aircraft differentiate between missile locks?
In short, the onboard Radar Warning System computer analyzes the data and determines whether the missile has locked onto the aircraft.
In general, aerial warfare is very complex and it is very ...
- 100k
12
votes
Can a UAV defend itself?
Can a UAV defend itself?
There were attempts to install defense systems on drones but such weapons have not proved effective, at least up to Nov. 2012 (see the article below).
"In 2002 the Air Force ...
- 3,371
11
votes
Can a UAV defend itself?
Short answer: No.
The drone needs sensors, and if the designers were preoccupied with outfitting it for its main mission and did not include anything to detect an incoming threat, a drone is a ...
- 230k
11
votes
If all fighter jets become stealthy, how will they fight each other in the future? In dogfights?
FIrst, stealth does not make an aircraft invisible- it just makes them harder to detect. Stealth (or correctly, Very Low Observable (VLO)) aircraft can and are detected by radars and other ...
- 100k
10
votes
Were there any instances of aerial combat between helicopters?
Wasn't aware of that battle during the Iran-Iraq war but gunships can and do carry air-to-air weapons. The Apache can carry an air-to-air version of the FIM-92 stinger missile and the USMC's new AH-...
- 72.8k
10
votes
Why don't combat aircraft have rear-facing *laser* weapons?
Besides the other answers, international law and the technical complexity of putting a laser on an airframe, lasers have interesting limitations as weapons. Lasers do not deal well with cloud cover. ...
- 201
9
votes
Accepted
Why was Energy Maneuverability theory not applied to the F-14?
The Energy Maneuverability theory is primarily a conceptual design framework. Its role is to be a guideline in creating the requirements for your aircraft.
This is something well above the ...
8
votes
What is the average speed used by modern jet fighters when in dogfight?
Average Velocity versus Energy
Average speed would not be the metric I would use to characterize a fight. As has been mentioned, pilots have a certain amount of energy stored in the aircraft ...
- 4,288
8
votes
Accepted
What's this sound? - Dogfight between F14 & MiG23
That is the aural conversion of the input of an AIM-9 missile's infrared seeker head. The missile allows the shooter to operate it in either a caged mode, that is where the seeker head is slaved to ...
- 72.8k
7
votes
Why don't combat aircraft have rear-facing *laser* weapons?
The Geneva Convention only addresses permanent blinding. Temporary blinding is all it would take to render an enemy pilot unable to react for at least long enough for you to employ evasive maneuvers ...
- 171
6
votes
How would modern jet fighters engage and defeat prop driven fighters?
How would modern jet fighters engage and defeat prop driven fighters?
If you'd asked that question some decades ago, the answer might have been:
They might not ...
Rather than pull away and make ...
- 26.3k
6
votes
What's this sound? - Dogfight between F14 & MiG23
That is the signal from the heat seeking missile sensor that confirms the sensor has a good lock on target and the missile can be launched.
- 671
6
votes
Is it true the F-16 has never lost a dogfight?
The guy talking about the only air-to-air loss being caused by a collision is wrong. That doesn't even count as an air-to-air loss.
The real air-to-air loss was in 1996 when a HAF Mirage 2000EGM shot ...
5
votes
How did ww1 pilots handle G-forces?
This interesting British document on the G loads sustainable by German WW1 fighters pegs the highest G factor for a British fighter at 5.5G for reference, with the SE5. German fighters examined and ...
- 8,717
5
votes
If all fighter jets become stealthy, how will they fight each other in the future? In dogfights?
Appendix
I exceeded the 30,000 character limit in my above answer. Here are some additional figures and quotes.
CSBA
On dogfighting and WVR:
Hitting an alerted opponent was really hard, according ...
- 3,964
5
votes
Why don't combat aircraft have rear-facing weapons?
A bit late to the party but someone just commented on this so it popped back up.
The answers given don’t really address the real reasons why rear-facing guns aren’t a sound investment any more. ...
- 3,750
5
votes
Why do fighters not use thrust burst from under the wings for improved maneuvering?
Wings are the most efficient known way of creating force perpendicular to the direction of flight. At the cost of relatively little force in the aft direction (the drag) a wing can create a lot of ...
- 56.2k
5
votes
Accepted
In The Final Countdown, why did F-14 gun down the first A6M2 Zero, but the other F-14 fired an air-to-air missile at the second A6M2?
YouTuber and former F-14 RIO Ward Carroll published a very thorough video commentary on this film. It's well worth watching. There's tons of interesting information in it (for example, and since you ...
- 14.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Unmanned Drone vs Conventional Manned Fighter in Combat: How realistic?
We're nowhere near good enough with our AI for a computer simulant to best a human pilot in a dogfight unless the odds are further stacked against the human (computer flies a superior aircraft, ...
- 22.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible