I have seen comments over and over saying traditional dogfights are over, but don’t most pilot training programs still emphasize dogfight training? The F-35 is also still very much an agile plane. If dogfights are in the past, why are modern stealth fighters not just large missile/bomb/drone trucks built to emphasize payload?
In: Engineering
Dogfights are not obsolete, they’re just not conducted in the same way they used to. Fighter jets still need to be able to combat each other, but they’re expected to do that with guided missiles. They’re too fast to circle around each other like WW2 planes did to get their guns on them but they still have to get a lock on to fire from a position that the rocket can hit the other aircraft. Missiles are very maneuverable but you can’t just shoot it in a random direction and expect the rocket to do all the work and find the target, you have to fire from a position where it’s likely to hit the target. In a dogfight a pilot is expected to avoid being locked on by the enemy while they get a lock on them and shoot them down. Their maneuverability is meant to keep them safer to avoid lock on, and if they’re fired upon, to make it hard for the rocket to reach its target. Of course, again, the jet is not expected to defend itself just by avoiding the rocket, rather it’s designed to make lock on as hard as possible and if it’s locked on, it has countermeasures.
Without maneuverability and pilot training, a fighter jet is just a sitting duck for enemy fighters or air defense systems. Their primary means of attack are their rockets and their primary means of defense are not getting locked onto in the first place and chaff but while it’s true that many feel it’s unecessary for fighter jets to have guns, or for pilots to know how to dogfight, it’s still necessary because in a rough situation you don’t want to be left hanging, you have to have a last resort. Also guns are used in close air support too.
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