In my experience and use case (multipath), the R-77 have never hit anything outside 10km. I have had AMRAAM kills at 35km, and derby at 15km, and 7F/R-24R at 20km something. All recorded in air dense sea level under 1km.
Even Fakour which is low g and head on seeker, is more reliable.
So that’s come to an interesting loadout question.
The Su-27sm offers two options in its two central mounts. Option 1 is 2x R-77 and option 2 is 2x R-27ER.
The addition of more missiles, especially when I play on track pad (where even shooting AI planes become a struggle) is awesome, if for nothing but AI targets.
But R-27ER would allow me to spam more for PVP purposes.
R-77 missiles are exclusively close range active homing missiles, you shouldn’t simply fire it at the first second you lock into a target like the AIM-120A/B or Fakour-90.
If your plane has good and working radar to use semi-active radar homing missiles you should consider, which I wouldn’t bet all my money in “good radar” plus “soviet airplanes”, they suck, that’s why Su-27SM is such lower battle rating compared to the former top tier.
On the su27sm you can take one or two R27ER and launch at the beginning in bvr at high altitude targets. Then it is better r77, because you can not defend and hold lock for R27ER at the same time.
My loadout on su27sm: 4xR73, 2xR27ET, 1xR27ER, 5xR77
I haven’t tried this method.
I first shoot the R27ER from a longer distance, and keep it locked until the missile hits the target or misses.
The missile is guided by radar only when it switches to IOG mode. If the missile locks onto chaff or some other target, the radar will no longer assist it. If the target is closer than 16km, you can safely exit the tws mode. And shooting an R77 from further than 16km makes no sense.
In the world where opponents have fox-3 missiles, it is not practical for you to properly leverage the superior range of the R-27ER over the R-77. It will not be practical for you to hold a hard lock against distant targets when they can fire a fox-3 at you and then completely turn away to defend.
In practice the advantage that the R-27ER has over the R-77 is your ability to turn off the radar lock and acquire new locks after launch. Here are some examples:
Example 1: Friendly Fire concerns:
A teammate is engaged in a dogfight against an enemy. You want to fire a missile at the enemy, but there is a risk that your missile will accidentally track and kill your teammate. With the R-77 you just have to pray that the missile tracks the correct target. With the R-27ER you have the option to disable your radar to forcibly break the lock if the missile starts tracking a teammate. If there is enough time you maybe able to force the missile to lock the enemy.
Example 2: Re-locking after notch:
You fire a missile at an enemy. The enemy successfully defeats the missile lock via notching and then leaves the doppler notch in an attempt to make their own attack back against you. With an R-77, the missile launch is most likely forever spoiled once they successfully notch it. However with an R-27ER you can have your plane reacquire a hard lock against the opponent once they leave the doppler notch, and the missile will make an attempt to re-engage the target.
Example 3: The So called “stealth launch”:
Normally when you fire a fox-3, the missile’s radar will activate and acquire a hard lock at approximately 16km from the target. This triggers alarms on the opponent’s RWR and they have that whole duration that the missile needs to cross those 16km to identify the threat and evade. With the 27ER it is possible to fire a lock against an opponent and then immediately break your lock. The missile will use inertial guidance to fly blind towards the last known approximate intercept point. Assuming that the target doesn’t change their heading, you can wait until your missile is less than 16km to the target’s location. Then you can activate a full hard lock. Since your radar lock is established at a shorter range, the opponent has less time to identify the threat and react.
Technically you can use the 27ER at long range, break your lock while you defeat enemy Fox-3s, and then reacquire the lock to guide the missile in for impact. In practice the combination of the Su-27’s truly atrocious radar and the shere amount of chaos in a 16v16 air RB match makes such efforts an exercise in frustration. This is why I don’t recommend even attempting the “stealth launch” or longer ranged reacquision of targets with the Su-27. Those tactics are more practical when executed with the superior radars mounted on the Su-34 and Su-30.
With the Su-27SM, I recommend prioritizing the R-77 and the R-27ET for your initial spawn. It cannot be understated just how powerful it is to be able to fire and forget before focusing all of your efforts on defense when you are in a chaotic 16v16 battle with threats everywhere. I personally think that the 27ER has more value as something that you have on a “2nd-spawn” loadout that you equip during matches where you have time to RTB to resupply. If you don’t know already, it is possible to “j-out” on a runway after landing and fully repairing. This lets you respawn with a different weapon loadout and fuel supply. It is simply my opinion that the 27ER is significantly more valuable as part of your loadout when there are 1-4 surviving enemy players on the battlefield than it is when there are 16 enemies on the battlefield.
2x r77 is def more value than a single r27er, generally though id reccomend bringing 2 if you can if theres a 1:1 exchange for any other missile.
R27ET can be fun as well, but you wont neccesarily get into situations that are ideal for them in every ARB match (sim is a different story).
R27ER are great for the start of the match when multiple enemies are grouped together since if the first target goes into a notxh you can just lock someone next to him and so on, feels great getting kills like that since you know its frustrating to get a lsunch warning and get slammed too fast to react. Its also great for people below you trying to rely on MP since the blast radius is greater than r77.
They are also great for sniping kills on targets that would otherwise die to friendlies before an r77 could reach them usually when you are like 15-20km out of a furball type situation.