The Sidewinder will travel further than that, I don’t know why you all claim it wouldn’t.
because it doesnt, a 9m launched from ah1z wont even hit a 2km rear aspect launch on a maneuvering target
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Have you used it ? Have you gotten your hands on a helicopter capable of using Sidewinders? On planes they are fine, because you are usually doing more than 600kmh. From 0 IAS they dont get very far at all . Front aspect you are lucky to hit a 6km launch ( against an aircraft flying directly/ somewhat AT you with considerable speed ) , while in rear aspect if you launch an aircraft pointing away from you with the same speed, it likely wont catch it past a kilometer.
I honestly dont get why you try to portray the Sidewinder as gods gift to helicopters ( compared to the TY90)
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hes trying to argue based on how TY90 self destructs at 6km while on a non maneuvering target aim9 can theoretically glide past that when you have enough altitude
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I have a Harrier, I have launched Sidewinders while hovering.
They aren’t as bad as you are claiming at all.
TY-90s aren’t godlike and Sidewinders aren’t trash. I’m not trying to say Sidewinders are godlike, what I am trying to say is that you can launch them from a much longer range and still hit shit, especially when they have the flare resistance of real life AIM-9Xs.
If you wanna get all theoretical , just a week ago i was in the LAV-AD .
I saw a plane at around 9km , way past lock range.
I tossed a Hydra in the general direction of said plane.
I launched the Stinger at the Hydra.
The stinger followed the Hydra until its motor burned out, and then locked onto the plane.
I hit the plane from a 9km launch , on a 6km missile . Therefore the FIM-92K Stinger is gods gift to SPAA.
From 0 IAS the use cases are very limited , you are basically rolling the dice on when to launch depending on the aspect of your target. Sure if said target is heading right at you , without turning even once, you can score some pretty long shots, but thats the case with most missiles.
9X , with its IIR seeker ( depending on how they model it , i hope they will behave like TV locks ) would pose a threat to other helicopters, giving the AH1Z a fighting chance against otherwise invulnerable enemy choppers.
To be fair most helis get a ton of manpads compared to like 2 good missiles. Plus manpads aren’t that terrible, if you don’t see it they can get you by surprise.
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And I don’t know why you are claiming it will. You can literally look at the performance in-game currently. An AIM-9M fired from a standstill will fail to reach a Mach 1 target even when fired from basically close enough to read tail number with even slightly maneuvering.
I mean this can easily be tested. There are conveniently premiums out to see for yourself a bit.
I did some tests to see what the limits are roughly for the MiG-15 in the test flight (it goes like 600 kph or so) for a rear aspect launch from same angle, same flight path.
TY-90 could be launched from 4.5km here and still hit. AIM-9L (kinematically exactly the same as 9M) launched from 3.65km couldn’t hit. Shows how the TY-90 just has a lot more energy than the sidewinder, if the TY-90 wasn’t limited by range or guidance time, it would outperform in maximum range as well probably. Sidewinder does have the advantage in total glide range, but energy is pretty much insufficent to hit anything beyond 6km either (unless enemy flies into it). The TY-90 looks to have pretty much enough energy to hit a maneuvering target at maximum range.
But the Sidewinder can therefore technically outrange the TY-90 (as in hit beyond 6km) if we’re talking about head on scenarios.
tests:
Spoiler
AH-64 with AIM-9L:
Z-19 with TY-90:
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Inb4 “No you don’t understand a Sidewinder can hit an idiot that flies straight at it from outside of 6km so it’s better”
I mean, the 9M has the advantage of being smokeless, so it’s not impossible. 9X is similarly smokeless. At least I am anticipating some decently long range kills with the 9X on the SLAMRAAM, but only possible due to datalink probably (as lock-range may otherwise be insufficient). Would absolutely have to rely on people not reacting at all though.
But in those head-on scenarios, the TY-90 can also launch beyond its maximum range, and for both, intercept range (as in range where target will be hit) may realistically be <6km if the target is slightly moving around and (near) supersonic (and especially if they are higher than you). I mean even in headon, you can see how the sidewinder is almost falling out of the sky beyond 5km, which isn’t great even for head-on. Not to mention lock-on range will probably be the limiting factor anyway, which make intercept range be <6km anyway, in which again the TY-90 outperforms the Sidewinder.
there is a 2 year old accepted report on aim9m lock range that would increase it in front aspect by somewhere near 5 times, if anything 9x lock range should be even larger than that
on the other hand I dont expect gaijin to implement it as anything better than current aim9l lock range like they have for aim9m
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How’s the new AIM-120C5 on the SLAMRAAM? Considering it’s just an 120A+, i’d appreciate the comment on how it feels
ive not played it but id expect it to be one of if not the worst of the new AA
Gaijin is currently implementing the IIR seekers with the good ol’ fov gating and tracking suspension IRCCMs, so I definitely wouldn’t count on them changing seekers to be more realistic. Not to mention, TY-90 is also IIR irl. So any improvement that come to the 9X would also come to the TY-90 for instance.
Yeah, i’ve been lazy enough on not downloading the Dev server, but i’ll probably get it either later today or tomorrow.
I haven’t tested it against real targets. But what I noticed after the missile change though is that super short range maneuverability is definitely worse. Before the change in vertical launch I could hit the helicopter (~1km range), after the change it has a much larger turn radius, so it just misses. But it’s like pointless anyway, long range performance probably improved. But otherwise feels pretty similarly there. I will have to wait until live to see how it really perform though, so I can’t say much now. I can’t be bothered to grind it on the dev server.
they gave it the same poor agility that they unrealistically nerfed the aim120A/B with compared to it having a more normal ARH agility when dev opened so that makes sense
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8 ty90s are not a problem though. 2 aim9x is
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