A framework for analysis of combat maneuvers input strategy using energy-based metrics

The primary rules for a successful aerial combat are quick kill, energy management, and assessment of aircraft transient characteristics. During combat, pilot must continuously evaluate his/her energy while at the same time assess the energy of the enemy. It is important to keep energy for future maneuvers especially in aerial fight counting in more than two participants. During aerial combats, deciding which maneuver should be chosen to have superiority and how to benefit from the weak points of the adversary are pretty sophisticated operation. The decision process of pilot based on his/her training and experience does not enable him/her to come up with an unique autonomy for such processes. In this paper, we have addressed "how to construct an algorithmic formalism for decision process in aerial combats" by focusing on analyzing the existing flight envelopes and energy-maneuverability metrics for fighter aircraft. First, the flight envelopes are given to evaluate and compare fighter capabilities. Then, metrics such as maneuver time, energy-agility, and transient agility are applied together to construct a decision process to determine the best input strategy for combat maneuvers. Finally, we have given examples through fighter maneuvers such as Aileron roll, Immelmann, and High yo-yo to show the validity of the proposed decision process.