Knife Fighting in the Air

Did the U.S. pilots really act in self-defense last week? Were they justified in firing the first shots? No question about it, say former Navy pilots and other experts familiar with the F-14 Tomcat. "I know it sounds strange to the layman to say, 'He pointed his nose at me five times so I shot him,' " conceded a jet-fighter technician. "But it makes sense in aerial combat. Furthermore, if some guy aims a gun at you in a dark alley, you don't ask him whether it's loaded."

Former fighter pilot Steve Corris, now a California lawyer, considers the Libyan pilots "idiots" for repeatedly facing the Tomcats head-on, since "that is an indication of hostile intention." Equally unfriendly was the Libyan pursuit of the U.S. jets at varying altitudes. Modern combat, Corris notes, "isn't like old-fashioned dogfighting." The distances are much greater, and the targets may be seen only on radar. "Everything happens very fast." Pilots called the Mediterranean incident a "knife fight" because the jets clashed at unusually close quarters.

Yet, some of the old tactics remain valid. "Pilots still like to have the sun at their back," explains Kurt Schroeder, the chief test pilot of Grumman Corp., which makes the Tomcat. "The speeds and altitudes, turning radius and weapons have changed dramatically, but the basic maneuvers are still very similar to World War I." So too is a pilot's need for fast thinking. "Aviation by its very nature frequently requires very quick assessments, judgments and actions," says Schroeder. "And the penalty for making the wrong decision is severe."