Combat Radius of an air superiority fighter

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Combat Radius of an air superiority fighter - 12/23/2014 11:54:58 PM

ctboe1_slith

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From: Minnesota, USA
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Having trouble computing this, say you have a F-16 Blk 52 with a standard BVR loadout. It has a combat radius of 200 nm, and can loiter there for 180 minutes, How can you compute what the actual radius of the aircraft, if per chance you were sending it say, as an escort for a strike? This has always bothered me with coming up with a radius for any fighter plane, and I've never been able to come up with a satisfactory way of computing it. Any Ideas?

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RE: Combat Radius of an air superiority fighter - 12/24/2014 12:13:53 AM

ckfinite

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The issue is that the range of an aircraft is a function of its load, drag, cruise altitude, ascent profile, cruise profile, and cruise speed. Combined with the complexities of the strike/patrol itself, computing the range is entirely non trivial. The best approach would probably be to measure it in-game, because until relatively recently, that's more or less how it was done in reality.

To do it well, you'd have to replicate the aerodynamic model of the game and simulate the flight, be it empirically (e.g. run a bunch of simulations) or analytically (use the internal formulas as a system of equations that needs to be solved). This would be really hard to do, so using the approach of measuring it empirically by hand is probably the best way to go about figuring it out.

(in reply to ctboe1_slith)

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RE: Combat Radius of an air superiority fighter - 12/24/2014 12:29:11 AM

thewood1

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Joined: 11/27/2005
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Its also why aircraft and planners leave a fairly large reserve in fuel calculations. Parts of the planning and execution are just plain unpredictable at the individual plane level.

(in reply to ckfinite)

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RE: Combat Radius of an air superiority fighter - 12/24/2014 4:19:56 AM

pepolk0001

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Joined: 12/17/2014
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Do a search and you will find that an overwhelming number of factors go into aircraft performance calculations. But... pilots put their pants on every morning just like you and me, so in most situations it is impractical to use equations and calculus to plan your fuel for a flight or mission.

Generally the pilot is intimately familiar with the aircraft fuel flow for various mission profiles. If a particular mission profile is more critical, the pilot has access to relatively simple tabulated and/or charted fuel burn data in their flight manual. There is little standardization for how the data is tabulated, and military/service directives specify what reserves are required (usually based on weather, crew composition, and airfield location). It may be easy for the pilot to know rough numbers for fuel flow rates for at least two broad categories of flight:

(1) Range (e.g. transit from base to your operating area)--you need to know average fuel flow and speed over ground (airspeed +/- wind speed).

(2) On-station/operating area (e.g. CAP-ing, combat maneuvering, loitering etc.) -- you are most concerned with your fuel burn because you aren't concerned with travelling the distance from A to B.

Aircraft manufacturers advertise a combat radius based on an assumed mission profile (like the numbers in your post). Who knows where this "assumed" profile comes from--perhaps from the design specifications that the government put forth in the contract. These numbers are rather misleading to the operator and mission planner, because they offer little insight into the actual fuel burn of the aircraft; therefore you will make yourself crazy trying to translate these combat radius numbers into tactically relevant information.

What you really need to do is use distance to the operating area and speed over ground to determine the time required to transit to/from the operating area (divide distance by speed), and multiply that time by fuel flow. The remaining fuel is available for operations and reserve. Don't forget to account for fuel acquired from tankers.

Ultimately it comes down to being an art vice a science though.

//

Fortunately, from what I can tell, this simulation provides just as much fuel flow data as you need! Just scroll to the bottom of the aircraft page in the database. I'm new to this sim, but it's friggin' awesome.

< Message edited by pepolk0001 -- 12/24/2014 5:23:07 AM >

(in reply to thewood1)

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RE: Combat Radius of an air superiority fighter - 12/25/2014 8:19:10 AM

AndyS10

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The answer to your question can be calculated from the information available in the database. I can�t see an F-16 loadout with a 180 min loiter, but I am using an F-16C Blk 52 (USAF, CCIP 2014) � database entry #1047 with an AMRAAM light 202 loadout. This gives a 110 min loiter time (loiter speed at 36k ft) at 200nm. If you scroll to the foot of this DB entry you will see that for this altitude (Band 4 36k-40k) at loiter speed, fuel burn is 17.22 kg per min.

Therefore 17.22 x 110 = 1,894kg fuel used. You will also see the cruise burn is 21.53 kg / min. 1,894 / 21.53 = 88 mins at cruise power. As you need to go back the way you came, halve this time to get 44 mins. The cruise speed is 480 kts, so 44/60 x 480 = 352nm additional range (on top of the initial 200)for a total radius of 550nm if you want to escort rather than maintain a CAP. Note that the initial loadout included 2mins at afterburner power for combat (burn is 144.22 kg per min!) so at max range the a/c is going to very quickly run out of fuel and head home. Planning on a radius of 500nm would give an extra 270kg of fuel, just under another 2 mins of combat time at AB power.

(in reply to pepolk0001)

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RE: Combat Radius of an air superiority fighter - 12/25/2014 2:13:27 PM

ctboe1_slith

Posts: 44
Joined: 4/22/2013
From: Minnesota, USA
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Thank you all for your replies, I wasn't prepared for the complexity of the answers, but in hindsight I should have been. I'm going to try and use the database better, with regards to fuel usage at differing speeds and get an approximation from that. What I'm really trying to do is locate where I should put my tankers so that my AAW aircraft don't fall from the skies anymore, I've been having problems with that.

(in reply to AndyS10)

Post #: 6