Control range
The combat range of a missile is the range that remains from the total range (straight flight) after subtracting the estimated maneuvering distance of the targeted target. The guided missiles fired by the anti-aircraft troops or fighters lock onto a target and pursue it. To do this, the missiles often have to perform fuel-intensive turning maneuvers, which significantly reduces the range.
Newer fire-and-forget systems take into account the maneuvering behavior of the targeted aircraft in the ongoing calculation of the combat range of the selected missile type (e.g. AIM 120C). If the connected aircraft is currently flying towards your own machine, there is a combat range of (e.g.) 45 nautical miles , if the machine changes its course (90 °), the combat range drops to 25 NM.
Older systems have a non-variable combat range, here the guided missile has a range of 10 km and a combat range of 6 km. The fuel for the remaining 4 km is used to compensate for the direction of attack during appropriate defensive maneuvers of the target.
If the guided missile is fired from an aircraft at a ground target, new systems, which determine the combat range, take into account the respective fire conditions of the aircraft, consisting of altitude, speed and wind strength, for determining the combat range. If an aircraft fires an AGM 65-C Maverick missile at subsonic speed from a low altitude at a slowly moving target, this missile has a range of 13 NM. If the aircraft flies at an altitude of more than Mach 2 at an altitude of 13.7 kilometers, the missile would have a range of 16 NM under the same target conditions, benefiting from the positive change in fire conditions for its performance characteristics.