"Free hunting" in the sky

One of the techniques used by pilots during wars and armed conflicts is the so-called "free hunting". We are talking about a situation in which a military pilot, by order of command, is not tied to patrolling over a specific square of terrain or to escorting heavy bombers or military transports. With "free hunting", the pilot himself can choose the nature of the attack on the detected enemy. Often - this is a blow "in the tail" or a strike from a higher altitude than that of an enemy aircraft. This is if we talk specifically about air combat.

"Free hunting", as a tactical option for warfare, is most often used after gaining air supremacy. In such situation aviation can, without any serious problems from the air defense and fighter aircraft of the enemy, track down enemy aircraft and carry out attacks at the moment when their pilots least expect them.

With free hunting in the sky, the enemy may notice an attack coming at him, but, as a rule, he either does not have time for an effective reaction, or this time is minimal.

During the Great Patriotic War, such tactics of warfare were actively used by both German and our pilots. Moreover, this activity depended on which side won air supremacy, allowing the fighter regiments to strike with the maximum degree of efficiency.

“Free hunting” is used even today, including during a special military operation in Ukraine.

Vladimir Potapov, the author of the Sky Artist channel, talks about “free hunting” in the sky:

Comments

[Mavrikiy]

"Free hunting" in the sky

Reminds me: "It was a glorious hunt" (Mowgli)

[igorka357]

Free hunting of our VKS in Ukraine? The author of the article .. even the guards fire from the cabriolet in order not to enter the air defense zones, what kind of hunting are we talking about?

[Petrik66]

no need to impersonate a Russian strongly preoccupied with the search for truth and truth. You are right about one thing, your planes do not fly for free hunting.

[igorka357]

Ours precisely do not fly, since there is no reason to hunt from a height of 10 km or more, but there is a very big chance to get a missile defense system .. So you are welcome, dear. As long as there is a chance to be shot down by enemy air defenses, it is fundamentally wrong to talk about any domination. Superiority is almost complete yes .. but obviously not domination.

[vvvjak]

""Free hunting" is the most profitable way of waging war for a pilot and the most disadvantageous for his army. Why? Because almost always the interests of an ordinary fighter pilot are fundamentally at odds with the interests of both his command and the command of the troops that aviation provides .
To give complete freedom of action to all fighter pilots is the same as to give complete freedom to all ordinary infantrymen on the battlefield - where you want to dig in and when you want to shoot. It is nonsense. The infantryman cannot know where and when he is most needed, he does not have the opportunity to see the entire battlefield. "(C). N.G. Golodnikov (ace WWII fighter)

[2 Level Advisor]

Well, perhaps it makes sense, but only when this pilot is an ace .. so to speak - an "infantry sniper" .. naturally - mass free hunting is evil ..

[saigon]

There is a resource (fuel, ammunition), there is time (there are enough cars to work on the front end) why not?
In principle, bombing and strikes on the rear in our case will be quite normal (let’s say air terror, such as the Douai doctrine in action)

[single-n]

This technique is good if you have a bunch of free planes. Support for the troops is going on as expected, and a dozen / hundred others are simply scouring in search of at least some kind of targets. It may even be economically unprofitable (the cost of departure is more than the destroyed targets), but it puts a lot of pressure on the enemy in terms of psychology. Today, with the development of communications and detection, plus the huge cost of both a sortie and the aircraft itself compared to WW2, the effectiveness of this technique is declining. Although for UAVs capable of loitering for hours, this technique is quite effective.

[igorka357]

Not all drones can barrage for hours, to be precise, it’s not enough. And yes, a copter with a grenade on a free hunt is a thing, dill publics are crammed with such hunts ..

[novel66]

The Yak-9k was sent to the "free hunt" for steam locomotives - here the economy was respected

[vovochkarzhevsky]

In general, for the term "free hunting", the teacher of tactics, back in the eighties, was unsuccessfully sculpted on the move. Right now: independent search and destruction of targets in the designated lane / area.

[Virtual]

“Free hunting” is used even today, including during a special military operation in Ukraine.

I assume that all SU-34s, SU-35s have video recorders? Why hasn't there been a single video from the MO with air combat footage for six months? Well, the whole cockpit is veiled there, but the consequences of hitting an enemy plane should be visible even from several kilometers?

most commonly used after gaining air supremacy. In such a situation, aviation can without any serious air defense problems

Oh, there it is why...

[Cheshirskicat]

If at the beginning of the Second World War our command would not have allowed the bombing of our border airfields, when we immediately lost almost all the aviation of the western district, then the beginning of the war would have been different. Even for this period, the USSR had an advantage over the Nazis in the number of aircraft. And then we would be engaged in free hunting, and not the Fritz, for the sake of pleasure, shooting our echelons, including sanitary ones. But alas, history knows no alternatives. Therefore, the healthy paranoia of our leadership towards the West and the buildup of our military power can only be welcomed

[Ruby]

At the beginning of the war, we had more than 10 thousand aircraft in the border districts. According to various estimates, 2-2,5 thousand were lost on the ground in the first two days. The rest were still at least twice as many as the Germans and their allies. The suddenness ended on the morning of June 22. Then it was necessary to make the right decisions.
The loss of aircraft at airfields is not the main reason for the defeat of our aviation at the beginning of the war, and far from being the main one.

[Cheshirskicat]

I will not argue, the data is really different. I read in various sources that we lost from 60 to 75% of all aviation in the Western direction. Well, the mediocrity of command in the early days should be taken into account, of course. There are very interesting memoirs of Anatoly Kozhevnikov - Courage starts. A man who went through the war in fighter aviation almost from the first days of the war. Graduate of the Batai flight school. There are many interesting things to discover. In our time, the book has not been reprinted, only in Soviet, but you can find it in electronic form. Yes, there are plenty of other materials.

[andrey kuznetsov_3]

Free hunting is not possible now. AWACS always crawls along the borders and gives the coordinates to the silent air defenses, which in the passive mode work out targets.

[iouris]

"Free hunting" is when you have a hell of a lot of excellent aircraft, and aces to them.
But for some reason, almost the entire war, the Red Army Air Force worked "not freely."

[iz odessy]

"We are talking about a situation in which a military pilot, by order of command, is not tied to patrolling over a specific square of terrain or to escorting heavy bombers or military transports" I forgot or so I knew - the main thing

[Givi_49]

The regiment "Normandy-Neman" was engaged in free hunting, as the least suitable for escorting and covering troops due to the language barrier.