Fighter pilots

Definition: The pilots of tactical jet aircraft were used for defensive posturing and offensive attacks. The men and women who fly tactical aircraft are usually the best pilots available in terms of talent and training.

Significance: Fighter pilots have been a major component of modern warfare since World War I. They usually fly the most technologically advanced aircraft of their day and are trained to exceptionally high standards. Fighters may be land-based or deployed aboard aircraft carriers.

The Beginning of Aerial Combat

At the onset of World War I, airplanes were a rare sight, primarily used for reconnaissance. Both the English and the Germans had aircraft designed for observation, and that was the extent of their role. Few saw airplanes as practical war machines; they were considered expensive toys, frivolous, and of little practical use. They were noisy, breezy, hard to communicate with, and dangerous. Their engines were unreliable, and survival was often a matter of luck.

In the early days of the war, it was rare for a pilot to come across another aircraft in flight. It was even more unusual to come across an enemy aircraft. Eventually, however, that is precisely what happened. When the two pilots realized that they were flying alongside one another, they proceeded to fly along a little further after the cursory waves to each other. Then, one realized that the other was the enemy and decided that action was required. Reaching into his tunic, he pulled out his revolver, carefully aimed it at the other aircraft, and squeezed the trigger. The other pilot decided to turn and run. Thus, aerial warfare was born.

From humble beginnings in World War I, the job and title of fighter pilot have become synonymous with heroism. From airplanes that flew no faster than 80 miles per hour to jets capable of more than 1,800 miles per hour, the duty and challenge of guiding these machines has been one sought by many.

Training

Fighter pilots typically share some character traits. They must multitask, maintain extreme situational awareness, and work in a demanding, hostile environment while using the airplane and its weapon systems to their limits. They are typically in their late twenties or early thirties, are college graduates, and some possess graduate degrees. Often, the individual has wanted to be fighter pilots all their lives, and they maintain a driving desire to attain any goal they set. Arguably, they have the most refined, single-minded focus of any group of modern professionals.

Fighter pilots begin their careers by maintaining good grades throughout high school and college. The choice of the major course of study in college is less important than aptitude and attitude. Of course, a technical degree will serve an aspiring career military aviator better than a nontechnical degree.

Fighter pilots must be commissioned as officers in the military services. A candidate must participate in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) while in college or Officer Candidate School (OCS) after graduation to obtain a commission. Another route to a commission is appointment and graduation from one of the nation's military academies.

After graduation and commissioning, the newly appointed second lieutenant or naval ensign undergoes flight training, which takes two to three years. During this time, new pilots learn all the basics of flying—formation flying, instrument flying, and, finally, aerial warfare.

Fighter Aircraft of the U.S. Navy and Air Force

In 2001, U.S. Air Force pilots could expect to fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon or the F-15 Strike Eaglewhich could reach speeds in excess of 1,000 miles per hour. Another attack airplane in the Air Force inventory was the A-10 Warthog, the tank killer of the Gulf War. The F-16 and F-15 were actual fighters, while the A-10 was an attack aircraft. Its strength was in "tank-busting" and ordnance delivery. The A-10's straight-wing design gave it the advantage of more wing area to carry a bigger bomb load than the F-15 or F-16. The integrated gun was also larger, with 30 millimeters on the A-10 versus 20 millimeters on the other aircraft. While the mission of the A-10 was ground attack, the F-15 and F-16 could perform both ground attack and aerial warfare missions. They could attack ground targets, but they excelled in the air-to-air arena. By the early 2020s, Air Force fighter pilots could expect to fly the F-15C Eagle or the F-22 Raptor.

In the early 2000s, Navy fighter pilots flew the F-14 Tomcat and the F/A-18 Hornet. Each airplane, carrier-based and used for air-to-air fighting and ground attack, flew faster than 1,000 miles per hour. While the F-14 came off the Grumman's design table as a fighter aircraft, the F/A-18 was a multimission aircraft. The F/A-18 was eventually intended to take on all fleet defense roles and ground attack, phasing out the F-14. By the early 2020s, Navy pilots flew the Super Horneteither the one or two-seat version.

Despite these differences, plans in the early 2020s began to move all U.S. fighter pilots to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Unlike Air Force aircraft, there are special considerations for naval aviation. They must be able to take the abuse of being aboard ships and dealing with the harsh saltwater environment. While all tactical jets are built to survive extreme wear, the navy aircraft are constructed more sturdily to survive the catapult shots for takeoff and the hard landings required to land aboard a floating runway.

Once Navy fighter pilots complete their missions, they must return to the ship. While the Air Force pilots have the luxury of landing on long runways, the naval aviator faces the daunting task of landing a multiton fighter on a pitching carrier deck.

Air Combat Maneuvering

Dogfighting, the term applied to airplanes engaged in aerial combat against one another, has come a long way from the time the first British and German pilots shot at each other from their observation aircraft. From World War I to World War II, aerial combat was refined into a lethal art. Pilots learned maneuvers that would best allow them to get behind their enemies and bring their weapons to bear. In World War I, a dogfight lasted minutes. By contrast, a modern dogfight may take less than one turn to complete and is over in seconds.

If the fight degenerates into a turning fight, fighter pilots put their aircraft through basic air combat maneuveringwhich includes maneuvers such as the rolling scissors, flat scissors, high yo-yo and low yo-yo, and Lufbery circle. A pilot uses these maneuvers to gain an advantage over an enemy for a close-in gunshot or an intermediate missile shot.

In contrast to the fighters of the earlier days, modern fighter pilots have the capability for what is known as beyond-visual range (BVR) shots. Depending on the theater, the threat environment, and the rules of engagement, fighter pilots may shoot down enemy aircraft without ever seeing them. This depends on the certainty that any plane from a particular sector is the enemy.

It is a risky endeavor and has resulted, at times, in losses due to friendly fire. Everyone operating in a particular area must be operating by the same rules. If not, there is the possibility of mistakes with terrible results. As a result, fighter pilots tend to be sure of themselves. There is always a chance that the consequence of any error may be fatal to themselves or someone else. Consequently, fighter pilots tend to be cautious, only acting when they know their knowledge and actions are positively, literally, and entirely correct.

In the early 2020s, the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) entered the fighter pilot scene. In 2020, the U.S. military spent more than $6 million on AI advancements, and in 2022, it planned to spend more to improve swarm drones, autonomous aircraft, virtual reality flight training technology, and AI aircraft's ability to succeed in a dogfight.

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine demonstrated that aerial warfare may have fundamentally changed. In the environment of Ukraine, missiles performed many of the strike missions formerly accomplished by fighters. In addition, the war in Ukraine has demonstrated the lethality of drones. The single greatest weakness of fighters has always been their reliance on one or two crew members to accomplish all the complex tasks necessary to carry out missions. By comparison, drones are operated by crews. More tasks can be distributed among more crew members with particular specialties. With the great advancements in sensor technology, a drone crew can have the same situational awareness of the tactical battlespace as an on-scene crewed fighter aircraft, even though the drone crew may be thousands of miles away. In the many conflicts that have transpired in the twenty-first century, fighter aircraft have not played predominant roles as they did in the twentieth-century wars.

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