hmm .. opinions vary.
They always do.
So you see this bandit reverse and fall backwards and he's already goin under 100ias when he starts.
You know his plane is now ballistic, and will do an arc earthward directly to regain flying speed.
What to do ..what to do.. decisions decisions.
His missiles ..if they launch ..will come off the rail with no added speed from the aircraft, not counting altitude advantage or disadvantage, or ECM effectiveness available.
If it's a self seeker ..a good one .. it may pick up what he is lookin at.
It may not.
For the sake of argument .. lets say he was bein chased down by an F-16/18 ..most likely adversary as an F-15/22 would not be as fair.
I would guess the setup to be a hard break by the sukhoi followed by the reversal move ..because the pursuer was closing on his six.. meaning he had some closure rate goin on. Distance tween targets would dictate guns or missiles.
First lets talk close in.. guns.
Pursuer can draw a line directly thru bandit with 20mm if close enough and put the guns pipper on the bandit ..he's stationary for all intents. Can the Sukhoi point, track, hold and shoot accurately enough? (see the nose fall when the plane begins to fall ..is he vectoring thrust or just recovering from the apparant lack of airspeed ..I mean .. is it a VSTOL aircraft ..because it doesn't look like it to me). If the pursuer sees the nose comin up to point at him, and jinks hard.. can the sukhoi react fast enough long enough? .. it just doesnt look like it to me.
Ok lets talk further out .. missiles range. Heat seekers an the like.. because if its radar missiles none of this applies. A high altitude radar missile shot against a lower altitude target will win all things being equal.. altitude advantage works in missiles just like it does in aircraft. The higher missiles go faster downhill and go further for the same reason. The only caveat here is how close to the ground the Sukhoi is ..if he's in the trees he may survive a radar attack.
So . . sukhoi is advised he has a bandit in his six arc, revs, sees the pursuer as his nose comes up and his plane begins to slow to zero then reverse ..and he begins to fall. His pursuer more than a mile away sees this, launches two, strokes AB, goes high while keepin eyes on the bandit.
Sukhoi launches ..low speed launch, altitude disadvantage (otherwise why point nose high) ..and he's stationary as far as the missiles comin in are concerned ..they're at mach 3 before they detonate close by or right inside his fuselage.. long before his missiles get close to the pursuer.. who now has altitude and airspeed and can decide how best to defeat the incoming missiles.
As I said .. discounting ECM entirely.. because if it works, nothin you got will hit the bandit.
Just one scenario.
Don't get me wrong .. if I were the sukhoi pilot I would use all I had to defeat the pursuer .. but gettin slow .. that F-16 would have to be comin in hard an fast before I considered gettin slow and I would go for the overshoot by keeping manueverable ... not hangin myself out to dry.
Just my 2 copper.
-GE
