Question: True or False: once a missile has been fired at you it's locked on to hit you and no way that banking hard would evade an incoming missile, unless you use countermeasures of flare and or chaff?
Friso94
2nd Jun 2014
Top Gun (1986)
Answer: To clarify, there are different types of missiles with different types of seekers. IR (infrared), also known as heat seeking - these are used in close range and track the target aircraft's heat from its engine. To defeat this, the targeted aircraft would use a combination of maneuver and flare (designed to be a hotter heat signature than the engine). SAR (semi active radar) - medium range, where the firing aircraft uses its own radar to lock the missile onto the target. Once the missile has enough tracking fidelity of its own, it takes over its own guidance and the firing aircraft can maneuver away from the target. To defeat, the targeted aircraft uses a combination of maneuver and chaff (metal particles designed to trick the incoming missile into thinking that is the airplane). AR (active radar) - medium to long range, the missile uses its own radar system to track, acquire, and seek. It's defeated the same as SAR missiles.
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Chosen answer: False. Missiles are fast, but they are not as agile as most fighter jets. One of the problems the first Sidewinder missiles encountered was that the target planes could simply out turn them (which is explained as the purpose of Top Gun in the movie). Missiles have gotten better, but so have the planes. In close quarter combat, like shown in this movie, fighters could potentially turn away from a missile.
Friso94