INNOVATIVE PERFORMANCE AND MANEUVERABILITY MEASURES OF MERIT FOR AIR COMBAT

CURRENT PERFORMANCE MEASURES OF MERIT DO NOT CHARACTERIZE MANEUVERS REQUIRED BY FIGHTERS TO BE EFFECTIVE WHEN USING ALL-ASPECT, SHORTRANGE MISSILES DURING AIR COMBAT. POINT PERFORMANCE COMPARISONS AND SUSTAINED PERFORMANCE COMPARISONS ARE NOT ADEQUATE INDICATORS OF A FIGHTER'S ABILITY TO MANEUVER TO ADVANTAGE. NEITHER COMPARISON ACCOUNTS FOR THE EFFECTS OF TIME COMPRESSION ON MANEUVERS, NOR ADDRESSES MANEUVERS THAT RAPIDLY EXCHANGE ENERGY FOR NOSE POSITION BY USE OF PITCH AND ROLL CONTROLS. NEW MEASURES OF MERIT ARE REQUIRED THAT CHARACTERIZE AND QUANTIFY A FIGHTER'S ABILITY TO ACCELERATE. DECELERATE, MAXIMIZE TURN RATE WHILE MINIMIZING TURN RADIUS, AND CHANGE PLANE OF MANEUVER BY ROLLING WHILE TURNING. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED STUDY IS TO VALIDATE CANDIDATE MEASURES OF MERIT THAT ADDRESS THESE CURRENTLY UNDERFINED AREAS OF FIGHTER PERFORMANCE. A LARGE VOLUME OF THE ACM DATA WILL BE ANALYZED USING THE CUBIC TACTS/ ACMI SYSTEM TO EXTRACT APPROPRIATE PARAMETERS. ENTRY AIRSPEEDS, ALTITUDES, ATTITUDES, ENERGY STATES, CONTROL POSITIONS, ETC., CAN BE EXTRACTED FROM THE DATA TAPES FOR PARMETER VALIDATION.