Interceptor aircraft

An interceptor aircraft (or simply interceptor) is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft, particularly bombers. A number of such aircraft were built in the period starting just prior to World War II and ending in the late 1960s, when they became less important due to the shifting of the strategic bombing role to ICBMs. There are two types of interceptors, emphasizing different aspects of performance. Both types of aircraft sacrifice performance in the air superiority fighter role (ie fighting enemy fighter aircraft). The result is that interceptors often look very impressive on paper, typically outrunning, outclimbing and outgunning less dedicated designs, yet they tend to fare poorly in combat against those same "less capable" designs. Point defense interceptors, usually of European origin, are designed to defend specific targets. They are designed to take off and climb to altitude as quickly as possible, destroy the incoming bombers, and then land. A particularly extreme example of a point defense interceptor is the Me 163 Komet. Examples of point defense interceptors:

• Supermarine Spitfire\n*Messerschmitt Me 109\n*Me 163 Komet\n*English Electric Lightning\n*Saab Draken\n*Saab Viggen (JA 37 variant)

Area defense interceptors usually of American or Soviet origin, are designed to defend a large area of territory from attack. The design emphasis is on range, missile carrying capacity and radar quality rather than on acceleration and climb rate. Examples of area defense interceptors:

• F-101B Voodoo\n*F-102 Delta Dagger\n*F-106 Delta Dart\n*Avro Arrow\n*Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25\n*F-14 Tomcat

See also: bomber destroyer, night fighter\n