They can be offensive, to help an attacker gain an advantage on an enemy or defensive, to help the defender evade an attacker's weapons. Maneuvers are used to gain a better angular position in relation to the opponent. BFM combines the fundamentals of aerodynamic flight and the geometry of pursuit, with the physics of managing the aircraft's energy-to-mass ratio, called its specific energy. Four P-40 Warhawks performing training maneuvers.īasic fighter maneuvers ( BFM) are tactical movements performed by fighter aircraft during air combat maneuvering (ACM, also called dogfighting), to gain a positional advantage over the opponent.
