I received a couple of questions about combat spread and promised to elaborate on some of the things that can go wrong and the resulting variations. Sorry it's been a bit delayed.
One of the things I soon discovered about wingman tactics is that they are very hard to learn. Learning to fight 1v1 is difficult enough and none of us are ever as good at it as we would like to be, and we continue learning as long as we continue flying. Add other aircraft to the mix, even friendly aircraft, and the challenge rises exponentially.
It is hardly surprising that so few pilots make the transition to effective mutual support, as you add aircraft to the fight there is just so much more to see and think about and so much more to go wrong. Regardless of the wingman tactic you try to employ, things sometimes go wrong. In air combat you are juggling with so many parameters that no matter how often you do the same maneuver things rarely work out exactly the same every time, being able to deal with the variations is part of the process.
In the original post, diagram 1 shows two wingmen in combat spread, and one of them is being attacked by a lone bandit. The diagram suggests that the enemy pilot has already decided which of the two aircraft to attack, it’s got to be one or the other right? Well, that’s one of the first things that can go wrong.
Imagine you have decided try wingman tactics for the first time. You enter a map grid with a large radar bar and your lead calls combat spread. Sure enough, a higher bandit begins to close from your long six and you know what to do. It’s simple, whichever one of you is attacked, will break away from his wingman and the other will break in the same direction to clear his six.
You watch as the bandit closes the range but you can’t tell which of you is being attacked, the bandit appears to be flying up the middle. That wasn’t in the play book. You wonder why the bandit isn’t following the game plan. You wonder which one of you should break and which direction. You would be surprised how confusing things like this can be if you aren’t prepared for it. We all know the five Ps “Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance” so this is where we introduce another wingman tactic known as the defensive split.
This is a way to force the bandit to commit to the attack, but the well-chosen separation distance between the wingmen will no longer work. Immediately after the defensive split the two wingmen will be too far apart and will need to re-establish mutual support. As with everything in air combat there is no one size fits all answer. What happens next will depend on the type of aircraft involved and their energy states, but for now I’m going to assume similar conditions to those existing in the engagement described in this post:
https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,399564.0.htmlIn this scenario the attacker had a slower, but more maneuverable aircraft with more energy than the defenders, specifically a high Spitfire attacking a P-51D section. The defending pilot’s must both execute the defensive split with the bandit in sight, because what the attacker does next will determine how each defender reacts in order to restore mutual support. The moment that the attacker commits to one fighter, that fighter becomes the engaged fighter, and his wingman becomes the free fighter.
At that point the two fighters have specific tasks. The engaged fighter must maintain separation from the bandit, while pulling or dragging the attacker back towards the free fighter to allow his wingman to close on the bandit. The free fighter must initially maintain a tally on the bandit and close for a kill or force it to break off. That sequence of events is often referred to as the drag and bag. From the point in the previous diagram at the moment you are certain which fighter is being engaged the defensive split can be switched to the High-Low split as shown below.
The engaged fighter must maintain speed and separation from the bandit while dragging it for his wingman and that speed can only be maintained by turning nose low. The free pilot turns back nose high, which has the benefit of slowing his speed and giving his wingman time to drag the attacker under him and this allows him to conserve energy before dropping back over onto the attacker. Generally, when executing a drag to friendly fighters it is better to drag low. When the attacker sees what’s happening there may be a switch and if so the free fighter will become engaged and the engaged fighter will become free, and so the process continues.
Remember, in this situation the attacker is more maneuverable but slower. The attacker’s initial energy advantage will soon be dissipated in hard maneuvering as he will be working against two fighters and thus burning energy more quickly. Being in the slower aircraft, the attacker will be locked into an engagement that without any mistakes can only end one way.
Hope that helps
Badboy
