In a classic dogfight has fallen off as a tool of modern fighter jet combat, the release of the new Top Gun: Maverick seems to have revived the topic. Top Gun’s primary air to air engagements which were its main and most anticipated action sequences were the F-14 vs Su-57.
F-14 piloted by Maverick with Rooster as his weapons systems officer shot down two Su-57 fighters in air to air combat. and the second air to air engagement, the Su-57 demonstrate its advanced ‘super maneuver ability’ (Pugachev Cobra maneuver) features before being shot down. American pilots going up against the Su-57 would be overwhelming.
A real world engagement between the F-14 and Su-57 would likely end very differently to that in Top Gun: Maverick, and would almost certainly take place at beyond visual ranges. While the F-14 boasts a larger main radar, it is mechanically rather than electronically scanned and several decades out of date while the Su-57 deploys not one, but six, electronically scanned array radars as well as an infra red search and track system. The immense technological gap between the fighters, and the Su-57’s advanced and AESA radars, the Su-57 could engage it at very extreme angles. It would be further aided by its extreme ‘super maneuver ability’ (Pugachev Cobra maneuver), considered the best in the world at low speeds.
What is Pugachev Cobra maneuver.?
In aerobatics, Pugachev's Cobra is a dramatic and demanding manoeuvre in which an airplane flying at a moderate speed suddenly raises the nose momentarily to the vertical position and slightly beyond, before dropping it back to normal flight. It uses potent engine thrust to maintain approximately constant altitude through the entire move the manoeuvre supposedly has some use in close range combat, and is an impressive trick to demonstrate aircraft's pitch control authority, high angle of attack stability and engine-versus-inlet compatibility, as well as the pilot's skill. The manoeuvre is named after the Soviet test pilot Viktor Pugachev, who first performed the manoeuvre publicly in 1989 at the Paris Le Bourget air show, using a Sukhoi Su-27 fighter.
The Pugachev's Cobra can be executed using only standard aerodynamic controls, it could be achieved more easily with modern thrust vectoring. In the latter case it would be an example of super maneuverability, specifically poststall maneuvering. The Herbst maneuvering and the helicopter manoeuvre are other examples of the recent growing use of 3D vectored thrust in 4.5 Gen and 5th gen aircrafts. This manoeuvre could theoretically be useful when a combatant is being pursued closely by an opponent at a somewhat higher altitude. By executing the cobra, The disadvantage of performing this manoeuvre is that it leaves the airplane in a low speed and low energy state, which can leave it vulnerable to attack from opposing aircraft.
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