Air-to-Air Combat Effectiveness of Single-Role and Multi-Role Fighter Forces

摘要

In their continuing efforts to determine how best to meet all global militarychallenges, U.S. Air Force leaders have elected to discontinue fielding fighter forces dedicated exclusively to air-to-air combat. Driven almost entirely by budget considerations, these decisions will result in multi-role forces only partially concerned with air-to-air combat. What impact this restructuring will have on overall U.S. air-to-air combat capability has not been determined, however, and so provides the rationale for this research. This thesis examines the air-to-air combat performance of various single-role and multi-role fighter forces during past military conflicts. Eleven criteria, ten objective and one subjective, are used to measure and compare these two groups. The objective and subjective analyses together form the basis for determining the relative air-to-air combat effectiveness of these forces. The comparative analyses used in this research show that single-role fighter forces have consistently outperformed multi-role forces as measured by the criteria used. Therefore, this thesis concludes that single-role air-to-air fighter forces are more effective than multi-role fighter forces in the conduct of air-to-air combat operations.