Interceptor Aircraft - Design

Design

The interceptor mission is, by its nature, a difficult one. Consider the desire to protect a single target from attack by long-range bombers. The bombers have the advantage of being able to select the parameters of the mission - attack vector, speed and altitude. As the bombers will ideally be detected at long range from the target, there is an enormous area from which an attack can start. The interceptor must be able to start, launch, climb to altitude, manoeuvre for attack and then attack the bomber before the bomber can cover the distance between detection and deploying its weapons.

Intercept aircraft sacrifice capabilities of the air superiority fighter (i.e., fighting enemy fighter aircraft) by tuning their performance for either fast climbs or high speeds. The result is that interceptors often look very impressive on paper, typically outrunning, outclimbing and outgunning less specialized fighter designs. Yet they tend to fare poorly in fighter-to-fighter combat against the same "less capable" designs due to limited maneuverability.