High-Speed Missile Dodge: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Training for SAM launches up to this point had been more or less book learning, recommending a pull to an orthogonal flight path 4 seconds prior to missile impact to overshoot the missile and create sufficient miss distance to negate the effects of the detonating warhead. [[Truth in Television|Well, it works.]] The hard part though, is to see the missile early enough to make all the mental calculations. "''|'''Mike Kopack''', [http://www.lucky-devils.net/afm.html Gulf Mission]}}

 

 

A [[Macross Missile Massacre|swarm of seeking projectiles]] is flying right at a character, and they're almost certain to be rendered into a fine paste by the attack ... but through an extreme display of evasive maneuvers, the character escapes without the slightest scratch. Sometimes the dodging is merely swerving from side to side or taking sharp turns, sometimes it's done like in ''[[Macross]]'', where the pilot puts his [[Transforming Mecha|Valkyrie]] through aerial acrobatics that would logically cause [[Inertial Dampening|massive G-forces]]. At other times, the pilot maneuvers so as to [[Misguided Missile|cause the missiles to hit each other and explode]], or supplements his evasive maneuvers with [[Point Defenseless|the use of some weapon to actually shoot down the missiles]] (but merely being able to ''[[Destructible Projectiles|shoot]] [[Shoot the Bullet|down]]'' missiles doesn't make for a High Speed Missile Dodge).

The other tactic is pure speed; some aircraft are (or were) capable of successfully outrunning air-to-air missiles, such as the MiG-25 and the [[wikipedia:SR-71 Blackbird|SR-71 Blackbird]], whose ''official'' missile evasion procedure was "just go faster, duh" (lightly paraphrased). In this case, it's less about the pilot's skills and more about the abilities of the aircraft itself.

 

{{examples}}

 

*** Lets not forget Shin Kudo, who managed to ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9pZSggOA28#t=28s dodge]'' a similar swarm in a normal F-14 using pure badassery and skill (as well as plenty of tolerance for high-G maneuvers). On the other hand, he kinda had no other choice as the missiles mostly ignored his flares.

* [[Gurren Lagann]] manages to use every means of missile dodging available the first time they're able to fly against the [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier]] Dai-Gunten: The first volley is destroyed by the Gurren Lagann's own volley (tiring out the primary pilot), the second volley is dodged by the secondary pilot (while he's screaming in fear) and the final two supermissiles collide with one another after the first one is grabbed and thrown back at the ship.

* Subverted in ''[[Love Hina]]'' when Naru, screaming and arms flailing, flees from Kaolla Su's [[Macross Missile Massacre]].

* Just about every time the Nirvash typeZERO mech is deployed in ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', it pulls off at least one of these, usually butchering several hapless KLF units in the process. In fact, most, if not all, of the openings also depict it.

* Parodied in ''[[School Rumble]]'', where Harima races downhill at high speed, in the snow, on a giant curry bowl, dodging a battery of large, apparently heat-seeking frozen fish projectiles with an impressive sequence of maneuvers and aerial acrobatics.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD2czrUbJWM Not to mention while wearing a Santa Suit.]

* A variation in ''[[Bleach]]'': In the climactic battle between Ichigo Kurosaki and Byakuya Kuchiki on Sokyouku Hill, Byakuya unleashes his Bankai, which transforms his Zanpakuto into a cloud of razor-like blades. Ichigo responds by {{spoiler|demonstrating the insane speed boost of his Bankai for the first time, knocking every one of the millions of blades to the ground.}}

* Rushuna dodges bullets and missiles in virtually every episode of ''[[Grenadier]]''. Subverted when a stray bullet rips off her panties leaving her defenseless, as she is unable to perform acrobatics without exposing herself.

 

== Fan Works ==

* In Episode 7 of [[Super Mario Bros Z]], Sonic is busy dodging bullets from Mecha Sonic's machine gun (rather easily) when Mecha decides to send 2 missiles his way. In a slo-mo encounter, Sonic rebounds off a wall, and leapfrogs one of the missiles in mid-air. The move's coolness is detracted from when the missiles hit the wall and the explosion sends Sonic flying.

 

** In fact, the ''Red October'' never once fires a torpedo throughout the movie. Neither does the ''Dallas'', for that matter.

* Dobbs, [[Ace Pilot]] from the German TV action show ''Der Clown'', manages to evade two surface-to-air missiles with a helicopter (neither an Apache nor Airwolf) in the movie ''Payday''. He even [[Misguided Missile|sends one flying back into the SAM mortar]].

* Most submarine movies will have at least one scene of the heroes performing a last minute turn to escape an incoming torpedo. ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]'' accomplishes this by having the crew blow ballast so that they quickly rise vertically. In real life, submarines will attempt to turn to face the torpedo so that they present the smallest possible target while discharging countermeasures, or employ high-speed maneuvers that create agitated areas of water which reflect sonar. The lack of submarine-vs-submarine battles, at least when armed with homing torpedoes, means this tactic remains historically untested.

* Attempted in ''[[Behind Enemy Lines]]''. [[Subverted Trope|It doesn't work.]]

 

* Hotsuma of [[Shinobi]] not only dodges a missile matrix style, he uses [[Evil Weapon|Akujiki]] two slice it in two, ''in mid-flip''. [[You Fail Physics Forever|Said missile halves then explode]] as Hotsuma lands.

* In the MMORPG ''[[Eve Online]]'', the Interceptor class of ships are the fastest ships in the entire game. It's quite common for Interceptors to outrun missiles fired from other players. this has been repeatedly showcased and commented on in the annual tournaments between player alliances, where it's referred to as "Benny Hill-ing".

** At Alliance Tournament 6, a Vigil class frigate(arguably the fastest ship of its class and price range) pulls this off and escapes beyond the targeting range of enemy missile ships. The commentators, while cracking up, commented that they should bring their own Vigils to start a new kind of race, and at the end offered the Vigil pilot a bribe to self destruct his ship so that the next match can start in schedule. After this incident, the act of outrunning enemy fire with a cheap frigate(especially a Vigil) is being called "Vigil Racing."

** Or at least they would, if they ''[[Useless Useful Spell|worked]]''.

*** While ships cannot outrun missiles anymore, fast enough ships can still outrun the ''explosions'', reducing the damage caused. For the largest missile type, "fast enough ships" used to mean anything that moves.

* ''[[Independence War]]'' '''demands''' this out of the player. If you cannot dodge countless homing missiles (that each do 20% damage) while dealing with the inertia inherent to a Newtonian flight model, you will DIE. At least the LDS inertia cancel trick in ''Independence War 2'' helps a lot by throwing off the missiles' lead compensation.

** The [[Macross Missile Massacre|Macross Missile Massacres]] can be fun. Even more fun is dodging fire from the automatic flak gun, which is easier than one would think if you have a decent flyer, since the gun's AI is easy to predict.

** Earlier games has missile barrages about 12, or maximum 16 missiles at a time. In ''For Answer'', a dedicated missileboat can launch a whopping '''128''' missiles continously, at a single target, with fire-and-forget capability (meaning that once a lock-on is ensured and the trigger is pulled, each missiles launched will track the locked on target even when it's no longer on the lock-on arc). This makes missile dodging paramount to survival itself.

* ''[[Ace Combat]]'' players must master this before taking on the higher difficulty levels. Particularly fun when outnumbered five or ten to one. The enemy ''will'' do it too. It's not clear why the missiles act so oddly, as they can take out a tank with one "shack on the target" but need two to blow through a plane, at least in ''Shattered Skies''. [[Like Reality Unless Noted|Strangereal is weird]].

** Notably ''Ace Combat Zero'' has one exception to this: the ADFX-02 Morgan will for the first two thirds of the final mission adhere to this but in the last third will simply deflect all attacks fired at him... except for missiles that come at him ''head on''.

** Also in the game, the player must fly through an ERS "Low-altitude" tunnel through a zone covered in SAM sites. While all the player sees is himself flying through the tunnel avoiding the missiles, some replays of the mission may show the pilot's craft zooming near ground level and outrunning or outflying six or seven SAMs locked on the player. So what LOOKS like a normal tunnel flight to the pilot seems like a high speed missile dodge to the observer.

*** There's also the almost constant chorus of "Missile evaded" and the also constant alarm that plays when there's a missile coming at you.

* ''[[Ace Online]]'' has the Idle Sniper I-Gear, the fighter type Gear that can outrun most missiles from levels as low as 40-50. I-Gear top speed= 500 (before lvl 86), most missile top speed=450. Enter Episode 3 and the [[Oh Crap|introduction of Speed Card missile upgrades]]. Now most I-Gear pilots rely not only on pure high speed, but also a healthy dose of [[Wronski Feint]] and barrel rolls. Any I-Gear that manages to hit 94 however, will still be able to outrun most missiles except highly customized ones.

* This trope is a very large part of gameplay in any ''Afterburner'' game. Interestingly, some missiles do seem to have a proximity fuse and go up in a blast with a not-insignificant Aoe, so you do need to put some distance from them.

* Another Western example is ''[[Freelancer]]''. As soon as you hear [[Most Annoying Sound|the loud beeping and your ship screaming "INCOMING MISSILE!"]], you know it's time to swerve with afterburners at max!

** Mantas are notorious for being able to outmaneuver an AVRiL by positioning themselves in front of an obstacle, waiting for the missile to get close then leaping over it. Cicadas drop the issue by being equipped with chaff specifically for defeating AVRiLs.

* This happens in the cinematic trailer for ''[[Brink]]'', though Splash Damage assures us you can't do this in-game.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Gru in [[Despicable Me]] does this to the heat seeking missiles in order to save his adopted children.

 

* Pilots performing "Suppression of Enemy Air Defense" duties get to know this tactic very well. In the US Air Force it's termed "[[Wild Weasel]]," but no matter what it's called it's a deadly game of flashlight tag--just with radar and missiles as the flashlights. SEAD crews ''must'' know how to dodge missiles to maximize their chances of survival.

** In the Vietnam War, the usual SEAD strategy was as follows: Send a fighter bomber carrying special radar-detecting gear, cluster bombs, and radar-seeking missiles, to suspected SAM sites. Once the enemy locks onto them with their targeting radar, they'd lob off one of their missiles, [[Reality Ensues|then spend the next little while frantically evading the missiles that the bad guys had launched as soon as they had gotten the aforementioned lock]]. The first generation of Wild Weasel planes ''didn't'' carry homing missiles, and had to try and actually find the radar site on the ground to bomb it, [[Airstrike Impossible|while the bad guys were trying to shoot them down the whole time]].

* After the first couple of generations of jet fighter planes, air strategists decided that the future of air warfare was air-to-air missiles; planes just moved so fast that they couldn't have time to maneuver against each other as in the classic WW II dogfights, so how would they have time to aim and fire traditional machine guns (or their replacement, [[Gatling Good|autocannons]])? The famous F-4 Phantom fighter didn't even have a cannon in its first few versions, as it was initially designed as a high-speed, high-altitude interceptor, intended to carry a load of radar-guided air-to-air missiles. Needless to say, things didn't work out quite that way. Early generations of air-to-air missiles just weren't that reliable. Later, after missiles became more reliable, friendly-fire incidents demonstrated the problems in over-the-horizon firing without visual identification of the target, concern of which was taken to ludicrous extremes in the Rules of Engagement the US military were given in the [[Vietnam War]] (where their opponents were usually able to dance all around the slug-like US fighters, though the Phantom's monstrous General Electric J79 engines--either of which by itself would have been the most powerful ever mounted in a fighter aircraft, and the Phantom had twin engines--gave it vastly superior climb and acceleration, which kept it from being a turkey shoot for the North Vietnamese). When the F-4 entered combat for the first time, they quickly figured out how to add a gun pod to the F-4, and later models included an internal cannon.

** And because heaven only knows [[Sarcasm Mode|history can't repeat itself]] some USAF authorities are trying to remove the guns on aircraft AGAIN.