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Air Combat Manoeuvre
When Winning is Everything
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To the public the exploits of a fighter pilot have always been legendary. From those daring gladiators in their Fokkers and Sopwiths of 1917 through to the heroes of the Battle of Britain – a fighter ace has always been king in the public eye and an idol of the times.
Since the Korean campaign there has been little air combat in which sufficient regularity of missions has enabled individual pilots the opportunity to score sufficient “kills” to attain the status of ace. Apart from the Middle East, where there are many Israeli aces (by US standards), even if they are not ceremoniously treated as such, the only conflict that as actually recorded continuous combat operations was in the skies over North Vietnam during the late sixties and early seventies.
Due to the ever increasing development of technology the pilots engaging in air combat over Vietnam were flying and fighting in an environment never before experienced. A typical mission would involve numerous types of aircraft – flak and SAM suppression aircraft, Wild Weasels, top cover, low level strike, reconnaissance would all be represented by highly specialised aircraft types backed up by airborne EC121 radar pickets and of course your friendly post-op tanker safely orbiting in less hostile airspace.
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