What are the chances of a jet fighter out running a SAM missile?

-LIke it that movie "Behind the enemy lines" with Owen Wilson when their F-18 Hornet almost out maneuvers two SAM missiles. I guess what I'm asking is, could what happened in that movie be realistic to some extent? The shooting down part of course.What was shown in the movie is something yet to be made practical in air combat. A missile missing the target, reacquiring and re-engaging. As of now, only the Israelis have confidently claimed reacquisition of a missed target by a missile (latest Python).



A missile starts with limited engergy reserves and very high speeds, the aircraft usually has more stored energy (fuel), but lesser speed. A hit or a miss depends on a range of variables like relative angle, relative velocity, altitude, range, sensor capability, threat awareness, countermeasures etc. Depending on some or all of these, the missile can or cannot hit a target. It is like asking "can you score a goal in the game?".
Combat aircraft outmaneuver surface-to-air missiles more often than they don't.



In Vietnam the NVA fired 589 Soviet-made Strela-2 missiles mostly at helicopters to achieve 204 hits.



During the "War of Attrition" Egypt fired 99 of the same missiles for 36 hits.



During the June 1967 Arab-Isreali war Egypt fired 22 S-75 missiles for 2 hits.



During the 1973 war Arab forces combined fired some 2,100 SAM's of the S-75, S-125 and 2K12 Kub types for 46 confirmed kills of IDF aircraft.
A fighter cannot outrun a SAM.

The missile is much faster.

However, the missile has limited range, is not as manoueverable, and can be "confused" by the fighters protection systems.

A good pilot in a good plane has a good chance of evading the SAM.
Outrunning?



F-18, maximum speed: Mach 1.8.

Soviet V-750 SAM, Speed Mach 3.5.
Outmanuever yes, it's called an orthoginal roll, flat outrun -- no.
I'm a fan of that film. And yes, a SAM is radar guided. I'm doubtful about that "Missile arcing 180*" though. This was loosely based on an event in which an F-16(not F-18 Super Hornet as in the film) was shot down in Bosnia when a couple of F-16s were on patrol over the skies of Bosnia. In the actual incident, the commanders of Bosnia first switched on the radar just to intercept the altitude, speed and heading of the F-16s and then switched it off quickly. Then they fired two SA-6 surface to air missiles into the air. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2K12_Kub Check this out if you'd like to learn stuff about SA-6 missile system)



They switched the radar guidance back on at the last possible moment. One missile went off in the air and the other one hit Scott O'Grady's bird. The master caution and SAM alarms went off only when they switched the missile radar back on, and he had no time to react or to deploy the countermeasures. The missile just hit the bird and tore it down. His cockpit was on fire, and he ejected into the hostile territory. He landed straight into numerous platoons chasing him, and then he managed to survive six days in the woods, keeping his COMs to a minimum. The marines and rescue forces pulled him out of Bosnia in choppers six days after the shootdown. Download the episode "Downed Pilot" in the TV show "Situation Critical". You'll enjoy it. The commanders who shot down the F-16 as well as the pilots narrate their experiences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrkonji%C4%鈥?/a>

This article is about the shoot down.



http://torrentz.eu/3c73ac1ad1e04b7006e94鈥?/a>

This is the download link for that episode.



Now, I'll point out the differences in the incident portrayed in the movie from the real experience:



1. O'Grady didn't fly an F/A 18 Super Hornet. He was shot down when he was flying an F-16.

2. He didn't have a navigator with him. Two pilots were on different planes and O'Grady was alone when he was shot down. The incidents of the murder of Lt. Jeremy Stackhouse was fiction.

3. He never showed up in any crowded places and he never talked with civilians as in shown in the film.

4. The genocide shown in the film is all real, but O'Grady had nothing to with the graves they talk about in the movies.

5. He didn't engage the Serb militia directly, and wasn't assisted by the rebels as in the film.

6. O'Grady and his fellow pilot Wright were Air Force pilots, not Navy pilots.

6. In the film, the rescue teams engage the militia just after they pull him up. That part is true. They were engaged by Serb forces who were heavily armed. One of the rescue personnel was injured when he was returning fire from the chopper. And though the chopper was badly hit, they made their way back home and they were no longer engaged after they crossed the territory and entered the feet-wet zone.

Hope this helped.
Quite likely. A SAM missle is about mach 2.2, some fighter jets break mach 5.