I ain’t coping mate, I hardly ever used the damn thing ingame, it ain’t “my” grid fins or my missile. I prefer western aircraft and western AAMs, and if anything the Derby is my missile at heart. From everything I’ve read myself and what I’ve been told by people far more knowledgeable on the subject, the fact induced drag is not present ingame causes its kinematic to be underperforming. Its design is unorthodox, and will absolutely yield higher drag when maneuvering. However I’m not the guy to argue on this so I’ll drop it here, this is just what I’ve been told and what I believe, which is why I said what I said.
I was and am being serious, the Derby is a budget missile with a lack of range IRL and ingame, it’s well known for this.
I mis-read your chart, I thought it was at much higher altitudes and distances then you tried it at, don’t know how I misread that but I got this pulled up on my phone so maybe that’s a factor. Should have zoomed in on it, mb. I assumed you were bringing up the Derbys loft for those scenarios, not low alt launches. So, yeah you’re right. At lower altitudes that loft angle is going to hurt to a less decently noticeable degree, as it’s a different story then from high alt which is what I wrongly assumed was being discussed. Looking back on the convo I don’t know how I didn’t realize this sooner lmao.
Well tbf nearly every ARH AAM ingame is underperforming in some regard, almost every single missile has a lot of placeholder or copy paste stats and balance based stats.
Which is comical given the lack of control surfaces lmao. (This is just speculation but maybe the devs set it that way to account for induced drag from TVC in a similar way to the R-77?)
Double checked and you’re right. I don’t remember why but I seemed to have remember it being the lowest overall motor burn time for some reason, don’t know where I got that from as it isn’t the case at all.
I-Derby ER has double the range of the Derby and I-Derby however, and more range than that of the standard R-77. It’s capable yes, but it’s still a lower cost alternative to other options, that’s why it’s on the export market and why Israel themselves don’t use it. It’s meant to be a jack of all trades, but a master of none. It’s got decent range, great maneuverability, and a decent seeker (although it possibly didn’t have datalink IRL, from what I’ve been seeing lately that was added with the I-Derbys). It’s a good missile, there’s no disputing that, but it’s also one of the worst when keeping in mind those 3 key factors and comparing them to other ARH AAMs made around the same time. Same can be said for the I-Derby ER, as it’s easily able to be considered weak when you compare it to other ARH AAMs made around this point in time. It’s not bad, but it’s not amazing, it’s just good.
they do use it, however its specifically used on those airframes that are meant to be compatible with virtually everything israel uses so i get your argument
The IAF doesn’t, but Rafael has tested the Derby and its derivatives on a few IAF F-16 testbeds. They use the Aim-120 (Specifically the Aim-120B/C-5/C-7/C-8) and haven’t used any other ARH AAM. I’ve been told there’s claims that the Derby has been integrated into IAF F-16s and F-15s should the need to use them ever arise, but it’s yet to be demonstrated or confirmed.
I dont knoe about f15s and i doubt so. But as far as f16s the chance of it no being integrated is small to none, those aircraft are meant to use basically everything israel has and the derby itself is a missile thats designed from the griu d up with easy integration in mind