Yes they can, it’s the easiest to kill planes lining up for an attack. Especially when they take a slightly angled attack from higher altitudes instead of top down or near ground level attacks to void detection. The radar guided SPAA are much easier to locate and plane a defense with because of the search ability of the radar and it’s quite easy to hit a plane flying in a straight line with the radar guided guns. The worse radar guided gun is the M163 because it’s tracking radar is awful at locking targets, that is probably the only one that is a serious struggle to use on a regular basis. The other 7.7+ radar guided gun SPAA are pretty simple to use can are quite effective.
Though I wish they removed the “errors” in the lead indicators for many of them
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Radar SPAA is garbage, only proxy and missile SPAA is effective, one of which they just removed with the VEAK.
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Playing the Guépard is really funny when you know how to use the radar, same for the Amx30, you can basically one shot every plane under 2km and helicopters up to 3km
Nah, SPAAs can do it and should be awarded better for it… Plane being in the air and intercepting by nature, shouldn’t.
Yea, firing from 3rd person view is very difficult unless you have HE-VT or they are under 2km. Using 1st person helps massively because the indicator is much much smaller than 3rd person.
Yes Miragen, Gaijin ruins everything, nothing is balanced, and Warthunder is awful at all levels. Thank you.
Doesn’t change my point that radar SPAA is garbage and you’re more likely to hit something without it.
I’ll take a WZ over a Gepard any day, better AA and better AT.
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Yes Miragen, everything you say is law and completely accurate. Thank you.
All radars have tracking errors coded into them, and they NEVER account for acceleration like they would IRL, especially the more advanced systems like the Gepard. They’re really only accurate up to about 2km away and that’s way too close, especially if dealing with say… an A-4E.
With a fighter I can intercept them anywhere between their airspawn and the battlefield, which is much further than 2km from the battlefield and has much lower chances of failing to shoot them down since I can keep up with them, instead of being restricted by them coming to me.
As Miragen said, HE-VT is the only thing that makes gun spaa truly relevant in the face of ATGM helicopters and CAS aircraft like the A-4E. Otherwise, SAMs are completely superior.
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Destruction of aircraft already provides an increased SL reward compared to a single ground kill.
14k, you have to remember with the new mechanics, critical hits & destructive blows, are a majority of the reward. Idk, 14k is pretty good for only a few plane kills.
and thats not even taking into account the automatic tracking modes that I think a lot of these Radar guided SPAA had/have. Should lock on, press a button and it will fire at the target. Of course too OP for a game like War Thunder. But the bare minimum should be the removal of tracking errors
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Well you say that, but we have a bunch of self-guided SAMs already in the game that require no input after launch… So it’s not THAT outlandish to have a semi-automatic mode for gun SPAA.
Perhaps, but from someone who plays ASB and is frustrated enough with Gepards and SIDAM-25s just sniping you without warning from 5km away, regardless of what you do… There needs to be a limit.
Though I wouldnt say no to a lead-indicator like the radar SPAA have for the Stormer HVM.
Sim EC SIDAMs and Gepards work on different rules to playable SPAA. They have far better lead prediction abilities and will have no trouble targeting you through solid cover - in replays you can often see them shooting into the ground if someone is flying close by but without line of sight.
The Chaparral is not superior to the M247 without HE-VT at killing helicopters. The Chaparral’s lock distance is well short of the 2km lock limit that helicopters seem to have. It is superior for killing planes though.
I will agree that fighters are usually better for anti-aircraft duty than SPAA are. I enjoy playing CAP with my aircraft, which is usually my primary use for them.
I am aware that most SPAA do not operate properly compared to their real life counterparts. The vehicles that utilize the Stinger platform are quite awful at locking helicopters, just like all the IR seeker SAMs.
For a pilot that knows that they are doing against SPAA I would agree. Against the average CAS pilot at 7.7 to around 9.7 they can work pretty well at over 3km if you’re used to using the systems. The ones with tracers are a bit easier to guide onto your target with fine adjustments, and surprisingly most pilots are too focused on attacking a ground target to realize they are under attack.
I haven’t had the chance to use the SACLOS SPAA, which I am quite excited to earn the after I get the M3A3 Bradley since they can actually target helicopters at a decent range. The SPAA below 7.7 are not very effective in my eyes, and fighters are definitely more effective than they are.
Not only is the chaparral a piece of shit, but it is also affected by the fact that gaijin thinks helicopters are the coldest things in the sky and can’t be locked until 2km by IR SAMs.
Type 93 is a far better example of what I mean.
If a system only works against bad pilots it’s not a good counter. High tier, HEVT-less gun SPAA fall into this category.
I’ll spare you the finding out - fantastic against helicopters, but if you want to shoot down aircraft the Stingers are better.
Those radar SPAA guns are also “fine” at their BRs but get out-BRed faster than any other type of SPAA. I know from Britain trying to use something like the Marksman at 9.0 and for a while it was my SPAA for 10.0 as well. They just cannot compete. At least something that fires a bad IR guided SAM, will still be usable for a few BRs. Even if its a bit niche in its usage
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10k for 4 is a lot. For 11 they give 13-14k. In general, be glad monsieur that you are given a reward and not a fine for killing the saint CAS…
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