Real-Life Decision Making
Fighter pilots live by rules. When they're in training, their regiment is strictly dictated by their superiors. And when they are flying, they must follow protocol set by military leaders.
However, fighter pilots are also trained to react to situations. Flight simulators -- even video games -- are used to duplicate all the possible scenarios they may encounter.
You are a fighter pilot. You are part of a peacekeeping force patrolling a border and a so-called no-fly zone. That means that another country's planes are not allowed to enter that airspace.
Your directive as a pilot is as follows: when you encounter an enemy jet in the no-fly zone, you are to give the enemy pilot one chance to turn back. If they do not, you must engage them in air combat.
Of course, the directive does not say how long you give the enemy pilot to turn back or whether you should fire first. These decisions are left to the pilot.
On this day, your radar shows the enemy plane when it is more than five miles away, out of your range of vision. You make preparations for an air fight, arming your Sidewinder missiles and notifying your command center of the situation.
You know the enemy planes have air-to-air missiles of their own with effective ranges of three miles.
The plane will cross into that range in less than 15 seconds. What do you do?