F-14 Tomcat Going Supersonic
In 2005 Lt Col Patrick Higby, USAF, (now Lt. General) wrote this very important paper for the Air War College analyzing the effectiveness of our fighter-base beyond visual range weapon systems he found that despite the investment of hundreds of billion of dollars into buying and supporting beyond visual range fighters, true BVR kills were rare with the vast majority of kills being recorded at within visual range distances Further, when BVR weapons actually recorded kills, they usually did so at WVR distances.
Reason for this lack of BVR success included technology that was not nearly as good as claimed, identify friend or foe (IFF) technology that could not ensure that the radar target you were locking you missiles on was an enemy and a number of other factors.
The paper is well-documented, informative and is a good primer on the factors necessary to successfully employ beyond visual range combat.
Promise and Reality: Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Air-To-Air Combat
by Lt Col Patrick Higby, USAF
AIR WAR COLLEGE
AIR UNIVERSITY
2005
Note: Though this paper was written in 2005, over the last 20 years we not gone up against a peer competitor so we have very little data that can be analyzed to show just how effective our most current BVR weapons systems are when going up against a peer opponent who has the training and systems designed to defeat BVR weapons.
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