Air superiority fighter

An air superiority fighter, also spelled air-superiority fighter, is a type of fighter aircraft designed for entering and seizing control of enemy airspace as a means of establishing complete dominance over the enemy's air force (air supremacy). Air superiority fighters are designed primarily to effectively engage enemy fighters, more than other types of aircraft, although some may have a secondary role for air-to-ground strikes. They are usually more expensive and procured in smaller numbers, compared to multirole fighters which are designed with a balance between air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities.

In order to maximize their combat effectiveness and strategic usefulness, air superiority fighters usually operate under the control/co-ordination of an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft.

During World War II and through the Korean War, fighters were classified by their role: heavy fighter, interceptor, escort fighter, night fighter, and so forth. With the development of guided missiles in the 1950s, design diverged between fighters optimized to fight in the beyond visual range (BVR) regime (interceptors), and fighters optimized to fight in the within visual range (WVR) regime (air superiority fighters). In the United States, the influential proponents of BVR developed fighters with no forward-firing gun, such as the original F-4 Phantom II, as it was thought that they would never need to resort to WVR combat. These aircraft would sacrifice high maneuverability, and instead focus on remaining performance characteristics, as they presumably would never engage in a dogfight with enemy fighters.

Combat experiences during the Vietnam War proved BVR proponents wrong. Owing to restrictive rules of engagement and the failings of 1960s missile and radar technology, air combat often devolved into close-range dogfights, one for which American fighters and pilots were unprepared. The lessons from this conflict spurred a rethinking of design priorities for fighter aircraft and development of the U.S. Navy's TOPGUN and the U.S. Air Force's Red Flag programs to teach pilots the lessons of dogfighting.

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