A Head-on engagement is one where a
surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
system or
jet aircraft
A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines.
Whereas the engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, jet ...
engages another aircraft while the target aircraft is flying towards the attacker. This makes engagement with
infrared homing
Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is rad ...
missiles more difficult because the hot engine exhaust nozzle(s) of the target are pointing away from the attacker. Typically only
all-aspect An all-aspect air-to-air missile can track a target no matter which way the target faces relative to the missile. In other words, an all-aspect missile can be launched against a target not only in a tail-chase engagement, but also in a head-on eng ...
infra-red homing
Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is radi ...
missile
In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket ...
s are able to perform head-on engagements. Radar-guided missiles are typically able, however head-on many aircraft have a much smaller
radar cross-section
Radar cross-section (RCS), also called radar signature, is a measure of how detectable an object is by radar. A larger RCS indicates that an object is more easily detected.
An object reflects a limited amount of radar energy back to the source. ...
so the radar may not be able to track/lock onto the target at maximum range in this type of engagement.
Missiles typically have a lower chance of hitting a target in a head-on engagement because of the very fast closure rate. If the missile is travelling at
Mach 2.5 and the aircraft at Mach 1, the combined rate of Mach 3.5 doesn't give the missile very much time to respond to violent evasive maneuvers the aircraft might perform or to recover from being fooled by countermeasures, etc. In addition, the aircraft can turn away from the missile and then toward it again just before impact, forcing the missile to turn in a much tighter circle than the aircraft needs to in order to follow it through this maneuver. Although missiles can turn faster than aircraft, this advantage is often enough to cause the missile to fly past the aircraft without coming within lethal range.
It has the advantage, however, of greatly increasing the effective range at which missiles or
cannons
A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder dur ...
can be used. Many
missiles
In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...
have an effective range in a head-on engagement on the order of three or four times of that in a
tail-chase engagement
A tail-chase engagement (or rear-aspect engagement) is one where a surface-to-air missile system or jet aircraft engages another aircraft while the target aircraft is flying away from the attacker. This makes engagement with cannons or infrared hom ...
. The target aircraft effectively flies right into the weapon(s) fired at it.
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Aerial warfare tactics