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
Not a pilot or anything, but…
* There are lots of situations short of full on high end combat. Pilots might have to go say hi to someone who’s radio broke, run off the dude who blundered into restricted airspace, get a good look at someone approaching a border, etc. So there’ll still be a eed for maneuvering close to a non-cooperative aircraft.
* With drones (and to a lesser extent, cruise missiles), there’s an emerging need to shoot down less demanding targets without using expensive missiles. Dogfighting might come in useful here.
* I suppose there’s the risk of being in a situation where you can’t use missles: more targets than you’re carrying missiles, got jumped on your way home, the other guy’s stealth/ECM/cyber wiorks better than you’d like it to, etc. Don’t know if this is a real-life concern.
* Even without dogfights, some degree of maneuverability is important–a ‘normal’ plane takes in the order of minutes to turn around. If nothing else, you’ve got to be able to point your sensors in the general direction of an opponent, and the engagement envelopes of missiles is affected by the lanuchers speed and direction, and by the target’s ability to turn and run.
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