This maneuvre differs from the defensive high-g barrel roll in that a great loss of speed to force an attacking fighter to overshoot is not necessary. The g forces can therefore often be quite small. Closely resembling the rollaway, the barrel roll attack is used to alter the angel of approach to the defender without losing a lot of speed. It is used when the attacker becomes aware that he is going to overshoota turning target. He rolls away the wings level, pulling the nose hard up, then rolls away from the direction of turn. This three-dimensional maneuvre is completed by sliding in astern of the target.
The counter to a well executed barrel roll attack is for the defender to dive away and increase speed. While doing this he must keep a sharp lookout for a missile attack and be ready to evade it. If he reverses his turn, he will probally set himself up for a gun attack.