Intercept

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Intercept

A short guide for the basics of intercepting flights, mostly for offensive operations such as visual identification, but also applicable for joins with friendly aircraft.

Basic principles:

Vertical separation 

You need a vertical separation for an intercept which depends on altitude, airspeed and bank angle. A rule of thumb is 40 000 feet (12 km / 6.5 NM) for a head on situation. The turn radius is half this distance.

Lag - pure - lead pursuit 

You start the intercept by lag pursuit and the target should pass your centerline for a lead pursuit just before half the turn for a head on intercept.

Starting turn 

For a head on intercept you need to start the turn at approximately 1.9 times the vertical separation (or 3 times the turn radius). The angle off the nose is always 32 degrees.

Head-on intercept geometry

Animated intercepts

Top view

Radar PPI view