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From: edat!brian@uunet.UU.NET (Brian Douglass)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Air to Air F-16 vs. F-18
Message-ID: <1991Jun13.055619.23624@amd.com>
Date: 12 Jun 91 20:44:36 GMT
Article-I.D.: amd.1991Jun13.055619.23624
References: <1991May24.030712.9709@amd.com> <1991Jun1.012622.27527@amd.com> <1991Jun7.072053.7864@amd.com>
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From: edat!brian@uunet.UU.NET (Brian Douglass)


jln@leland.stanford.edu (Jared Nedzel) writes:
>Also, don't discount the effects of the rules of the fight.  

This is the whole point behind Operational Test & Evaluation (OT&E)
that is performed on the Nellis Gunnery Range where the ROE are
constantly modified to test these various scenarios.  Crossover
Initiation vs Called Fight are in general up to the referee that is
watching the whole exercise.

Almost all of this speculation about what will beat what has been
answered through 1000s of sorties by Air Force, Navy, Marine, and
Allied Fliers.  At one time or another virtually every type of aircraft
has defeated a technologically superior aircraft.  The bottom line
answer is if the Pilot forgets his situation, forgets the limitations
or to use the advantages of his aircraft, he is dead meat.  The ATF
could just as easily get shot down by a P-51 given the just the right
set of circumstances (ATF subsonic at 20,000 in level flight, P-51
diving in from the sun at 30,000 feet).

There isn't a plane yet that can dog fight on its own.  It still
comes down to which pilot can get the most out of his airplane in
a given situation.  (It's great though when the referee overrides
the computer and calls miss on every shot that a pilot makes!)

As far as the situation goes about F-16s vs F-14s, F-14s have
gotten kills at long range as well as missed.  The F-16 gets into a
position outside of the Phoenix performance envelope, and he's
safe.  Always its the pilot.

-- 
Brian Douglass			brian@edat.uucp