Air Combat Tactics for the Evaluation of Rotorcraft Characteristics in the Low Air War of 2010

The paper postulates that by the year 2010 the Soviet Military will have accumulated significant numbers of advanced anti-tank and anti-helicopter rotorcraft. These helicopters, plus at least one model of tilt rotor aircraft will be fully integrated into Division, Army and Front Operations. A review of the probable employment of these threat aircraft reveals that a new multi-role aircraft system will be required to gain and maintain air superiority in the low air over the battlefield by providing security along the air avenues of approach to friendly ground and aviation forces, defeating the anti-tank helicopters before they can be employed, and providing an enhanced air-to-ground capability in the near portion of the Corps Deep Battle. Any aircraft designed to meet these mission objectives will be expected to fight out-numbered and win as a result of the application of advanced technology. The characteristics of an air-war fought below 100 meters are postulated for the year 2010. This characterization is applied along with a notional high performance rotorcraft system to a holistic analytical method which is used to synthesize air combat tactics. The method is used to specifically investigate the utility of an aircraft which is configured to have a large power margin and a significant speed advantage over the adversary. Starting with the notional high performance aircraft system, an action-reaction analysis is iteratively applied to converge on tactics and rules of engagement. A limited number of these synthesized tactics are presented to show the kind of tactical advantage which can be achieved. The paper concludes that there are viable tactics which can be used to take advantage of an advanced rotorcraft configured with high installed power, a high speed capability and excellent high speed agility and maneuverability. This leads to the corollary conclusion that such an aircraft can win outnumbered and meet the envisioned mission objectives. Finally, the paper recommends the development of synthesized tactics manuals for use during flight simulation and aircraft evaluation programs.