Page 7 - Maritime Services and the Kill Web

The Maritime Services, the Allies and Shaping the Kill Web

Similarly, one country may have the determination to extract the maximum potential from its weapons, while
another with similar skills may lack the motivation, leadership and focus on training, training, and training, to
exploit those same weapons.

If one was forced to measure either the capabilities of the weapons or the capabilities of their operators, the
greater and more useful insight might be derived from the latter.

But there may be a way to combine military technology and the human intangible factor very simply, which is
defining a Payload Utility Function.

Having sat through the late Colonel John Boyd’s famous lecture twice, I developed a real appreciation first
hand of his creating one of the most widely embraced ideas about combat dynamics ever formulated.

In those days, there was a significant adverse reaction against the F-4 Phantom II aircraft.

The complaint was that as originally designed it was a high-altitude interceptor.
In fact, in early pictures the two man crew Pilot and Radar Intercept Officer were depicted wearing high
altitude pressure suits.

The primary weapons were missiles, the AIM-7 semi-active Sparrow and the IR fire and forget AIM-9
Sidewinder.

The early Phantom T/M/S had no gun.
In addition the cockpit was, relatively speaking, not maximized for looking out the window; it was almost a
sunken cave.

Of course, the F-4 went on to be a very capable multi-mission fighter-bomber with 5,000 produced for many
nations Air Forces.

The Phantom rapidly morphed from just an Interceptor to a “dog fighter” (it took Top Gun, the USAF Fighter
Weapons School and the Israelis with many hours in type to be the best) and a Direct Air Support or deep
interdiction aircraft and in Marine hands, became a formidable Close Air Support platform.

For example, a section of F-4s armed with four shot Zuni Rocket pods had a greater initial “broadside
potential” of a WW II Destroyer’s main weapons firing their 5 inch 54 gun mounts in an opening salvo.
Colonel Boyd had a real issue with the aviation design teams that in addition to the F-4, gave the USAF its
famous Century Series, the F-101, F-102, F-104, F105, and F-106.

The comment was often made in those days by USAF Fighter Pilots, “Why are we flying Navy aircraft?”

In addition to the F-4, the USAF also had the Navy developed A-7.

John Boyd brilliantly challenged all designers too essentially replicate his great success in flying the F-86.

He made a very cogent case in claiming that modern fighters needed a “bubble” canopy and the best
relative “energy maneuverability” possible as more powerful engines were being developed.

Boyd stressed P sub s diagrams.

Ps simply allows comparisons of aircraft at different altitudes to essentially see where the different “edges of
the envelope” advantages existed.

Page 6