**3.3 Fighter aircraft operational profile**

Combat radius or radius of action (ROA) of military aircraft refers to the maximum distance the aircraft can travel from the operating base with operational load, complete operational mission and return without refueling, allowing for reserve fuel and all other safety requirements. The thumb rule is that ROA is one third the distance an aircraft can fly on full load and total fuel. Operational mission planning is done for offensive roles to maximize the ROA without taking undue risk of enemy detection and attack. Some considerations are [1, 5]:

a.Low-level flight missions will have smaller ROA due to higher drag and fuel consumption; however, it will have low radar detection probability.


Many offensive attack missions are normally planned a mix of hi-lo-hi mission. A typical profile is shown in **Figure 7**. The F-16 Fighting Falcon has the combat radius of 550 km (340 mi) on a hi-lo-hi mission with six 450 kg (1000 lbs) bombs.
