A discussion on Harrier Gr.7 with 9M's at 11.0 SB

Why is the Harrier Gr.7 with Aim-9Ms at 11.0 for SB?

With only Aim-9L’s I can see it staying at 11.0 as the A10’s also have 9L’s and they sit at 10.3, plus the A10 is a very very slow platform anyway. 9L’s are decently easy to defeat and they aren’t smokeless so you can see them. But with the Harrier Gr.7 having 9M’s it should go up to 11.3 SB or maybe 11.7 SB. Aim-9M’s should not be in 11.0 SB. The 9M is practically invisible, and it’s very hard to defeat. The only way to defeat the 9M is to pre-flare, which is difficult because you can’t even see the launch nor the smoke (which is another topic because they shouldn’t be totally invisible in the first place) and zigzag a bit while still flaring/getting out of burner and alot of aircraft around that BR don’t have enough countermeasures to contend with the 9M anyway.

On the same note. What is the R60 (Yak 38) and the Aim-9G (Harrier Gr.3) doing at 9.3 SB. Almost all aircraft at that BR don’t even have countermeasures but there’s R60’s and Aim-9G’s. The only missles that should be at 9.3 SB are the 9B, R3S, 7C and the equivalents to these like the PL2.

No radar and Sub-sonic performance. Thats it. The lack of ability to IFF any target at range means that the Harrier Gr7 has to get up close and personal or risk shooting down a teammate. This serverly impacts the performace of the Aim-9Ms (Not too mention the fact that we cant do any kind of off-boresight shot with them)

whilst yes, it is very strong at the moment vs 10.3s. Its struggles in the 2x Cycles where it faces 12s and 12.3s as you are very vulnerable. It cannot move up. Not without radar.

If you use the TGP you can pretty reliably IFF. But I agree, it can’t really go up

You can, in theory… Though its rather hard to tell the difference between say, a US F-16 and a Taiwan F-16 for example. Or a US F4 or a Japanese F4.

Its also kinda fiddly, I’ve got it down where I can reasonably use it in combat for some VID. But no where near as good as actually IFF on a radar