About the Spike Fire and Forget ATGMs

I’ve been thinking about what the best possible method of implementation for these kinds of weapons.

To Gaijin’s credit, they have given us the full missile, albeit with only 50% of its engagement capability. Meaning that while they have given us the Fire and forget capability of such munitions, the fire and observe capability is, rightly so, held back, because of the interests of game balance.

We all know how Fire and Forget works. You lock onto a target and launch the missile and thats it. its an IR guided missile. Simple as.

The below video demonstrates the Fire and observe function of the Spike missile:

Now, going by definition, technically we already have Fire and observe weaponry in Warthunder. Normal ATGMs, whether laser guided, or optically tracked.

Now in the best interests of the game, balance, as well as the ability of Spike and alike armed vehicles to be able to operate decently, i suggest a simple yet effective change.

Keep the Spike missile’s Fire and Forget mode, but also give the operator to guide the missile in like a normal optically tracked ATGM.

We can model the lofting as we already have with Hellfire missiles, which, admittedly operate on laser point guidance, however, the best way to describe this for in game purposes, would be dual-mode, fire and forget as well as semi automatic TV point guidance.

Please tell me your thoughts

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4 Likes

Already made a thread for this a while ago

2 Likes

This was in the game for a limited time, and you know it ended lol

however i think gaijin doesnt want NLOS attacks to be possible in that regard.

i think spikes could be made use of if they were also allowed to act like normal ATGMs (which is not a stretch from reality imho)

cant say lol,
i have no memory of this specific capability for spikes

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A bug at 7.7 fighting WW2 tanks is not even close to what it will be like properly implemented

Tbh we dont need the proper implementation.
Just a secondary way to control the missile semi automatically so it doesnt always hit on something random.
Maybe give us the change to actually use some of that 900mm of penetration etc

just a better loft and making them to target the turret roof would do the job as most of the issues comes down to the centermass shots often do nothing and the loft, no need to make up a new way to gide them.

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if they propely implemented this in top tier then i think it could be fun. though you would need some sort of counter measures like jammers or APS to counter it so it doesnt become too OP. and since most Armies are putting jammers and APS and Anti-Drone gadgets on theri MBT’s it wouldnt even be too far fetched that we might see something like that in the future. It would be a good alternative to FPV drones.

Good thing is its not even a made up way.
A minute adjustment for the sake of balance and otherwise itis how it is guided irl

irl it is guided from the missile, you cant guided like an optically tracked missile so it is a made up guidance that youre making, not to mention that when you use the automatic mode irl it does not guide to the point that youre aiming on the launcher but to the top of the turret.

jammers does nothing against this kind of missiles as they are connected trought a fiber optic.

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So that means anyone that doesn’t have APS is simply boned. No thank you

Its not made up because the seeker locks onto a TV/IR point and the guidance system automatically manoeuvers the missile to that spot.
This spot is designated by the gunner in fire and observe mode.
Not always is it the turret roof.

What im proposing is basically to have the “observe” point be the gunner sights rather than the missiles seeker.
This is acceptable since the missile can be guided by fibre optic and the setting of a TV/IR point from the gunner sight is just a small restriction which isnt unrealistic. Merely a compromise.

How so? The only thing that changes is tanks are faster and some have APS

In automatic and in fire and observe mode it always target the turrer top, you can only target specific part if you use the manual mode, in fire and observe it just allows you to switch targets but the autopilot still does all the targeting.

the thing is that what you propose doesnt fix the actual issues of the missile, just make it behave like a SAL missile, which actually is unrealistic, and will probably make worse than it is seen how sal behaves

Which is LOBL mode (i hope theres no confusion abt that)

Which can be LOAL mode, and this, as shown by the video appended in the first post, shows that the missile does not always lock automatically and the ginner can adjust the point of impact.

Oh?
Being able to decide where 900mm of penetration go is a disadvantage?

Fire and observe is not manual. I hope that this is clear, for fire and obsever it is still a LOBL mode, it just allows you to swich tagets.

In a small warhead and seen how wonky SAL is it does…

Bruh

NLOS by definition is LOAL lmao

Please see the video about spikes attached in the first post.