The term "Fighter"

On 23 Dec 2003 19:54:25 -0800, (David L. Pulver)
wrote:

These days, "fighter" usually means "A single or dual-seat fast mover
capable or at least originally designed in some variant or other for
reasonably effectively performing an air superiority or intercept
mission, regardless of what else it can do" the reasonably-effectively
part translating into "at least mach 1, carries air-to-air missiles,
and ideally supersonic with a air-intercept radar" and the "what else"
usually being strike, recon, and SEAD.

Invariably in this discussion we get a melding of the historic and the
current, insertion of an occasional red herring and a convolution of
USN and USAF terminology.

In USAF terminology, a "fighter" usually means a tactical fast mover.
It probably has good agility and a sensor suite to detect enemy
airborne targets, but for the last thirty years has been acknowledged
as an aircraft that will seldom encounter a credible air/air threat.

"Air superiority is something a fighter pilot does on his way to and
from the target." I said it, and I still believe it.


There are instances when an aircraft receives a fighter *designation*
for unusual reasons (the F-117), but these are anomalies. Also F-111,
which was supposed to be a fighter but didn't work out as one, and
such.

The F-111 was supposed to be a tactical fast mover. See above for USAF
tradition.

Also, USAF tactical aviation doesn't like calling anything an "attack"
aircraft so aside from the A-10 (clearly not a real modern fighter,
being subsonic, even if it can carry a few sidewinders!) we get things
like F-105 ("It's a fighter because it's got a gun and is supersonic,
even if it's not used as one").

Now you're on the fighting side of me. The F-105, designed in the
early '50s and fielded operationally with the D model in 1959 (FY '58
production), was single seat, single engine and very capable air/air.
It had an air/air radar mode, lead computing gun sight, good agility
(+8.67/-3.0 G) and was sidewinder capable. If fought with an
understanding of the aircraft's P-sub-s and V-G diagrams, it was
pretty serious air/air. You might want to review the number of MiG
kills by F-105s for verification.

Oh, and did I mention that killing MiGs was something we did on our
way to and from the target?


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8