This is used when an attacker is first seen approaching or is already in the cone of vulnerability. Its purpose is twofold: to spoil the attacker's aim and to force him to overshoot. The break is always made towards the direction of attack, This generates "angle-off" as quickly as possible which makes the defender a difficult target. The attacker may be able to cut inside the turn but he is forced to pull lead. To do this he must tighten his turn, which increases his angle of attack. It is difficult for him to pull his nose around at high angles of attack to achieve a firing solution. The defender should also alter his plane of flight to make himself a more difficult target.
Two forms of break are possible, depending on the circumstances of the attack. The defender can use a maximum-rate sustained turn in which he does not lose speed, or the hardest possible turn in which he almost certainly does. The speed loss attendant on the hard turn aids his chances of forcing the attacker to overshoot, as does the smaller radius of turn, but oft-quoted maxims such as "speed is life" act as an inhibitor. If the break succeeds in forcing the attacker to overshoot, the next maneuver is the Scissors.
The break is a life-saving maneuver. It is used against an attacker who is about to achieve a firing position (or already has). It consists of a hard turn into the direction of attack, to generate angle-off as rapidly as possible to present the most difficult target.