The response to players asking for Brimstone to get it’s mmW guidance, even if that means giving it an artificial nerf and letting smoke obscure the seeker to keep it in line with TV/IR guidance:
Meanwhile gaijin happily admitting to artificially withholding MITL mechanics from ground vehicles in the interest of balance:
This is a single example, but there are countless other examples of Gaijin artificially nerfing something in the interest of overall game health. There is no reason whatsoever that the same thing can’t be done with FnF brimstones, it simply seems to be a headscratching double standard currently.
(Note - this is NOT asking for Brimstone to get their mad dog / LOAL capability. That would indeed be broken but is a completely different ballpark to mmW FnF capabilities)
I think you are barking up the wrong tree in response to this devblog. At best, this new MITL business gives you very rudimentary LOAL for a single munition at a time, requiring some manual fiddling and a maintained LoS. This is very different to actual full LOAL like mode 3 Brimstone, where the entire payload can be ripple fired from behind terrain and acquire targets smartly and automonously without the launch aircraft ever once exposing itself.
What we should be arguing for is mode 2 Brimstone, which requires a lase to initiate the lock, and then once the Brimstone is launched guidance can be handed over to the mmW seeker. With appropriate balancing of mmW seeker capabilities (for example, partial or full obfuscation by smoke) this would be no different to current FnF capabilities provided by IR seekers, and in fact it would be slightly worse, as the initial lase would trigger the LWS for tanks that have it, unlike IR munitions, where there is no warning whatsoever.
But it isn’t? Or at least it could be realistically implemented not to be. It is switching from one guidance to another, but it isn’t only acquiring guidance after launching, which is LOAL.
currently all SAL weapons are LOAL, mode 2 would work with half a second of lasing once the missile is close enough.
Plus Brimstone SAL seeker has 10km range, so even if you managed to get the missiles to refuse to launch unless they can see a laser you’re locked to sub-10km launches, and if the mmW takes over at 9km then a 10km launch will need 1-2s of lasing. Sub 9km and it may as well be mmW only.
On top of that, what happens if you try and launch a second Brimstone while the first is in the air? the FoV is 30 degrees, would it pick up the new lase and switch target or would re-lasing be impossible once it goes active?
You can also fire Brimstones on IOG from further away, you dont have to be specifically within 10km to use a Brimstone. You only need to operate within 30km to make use of the laser.
The core difference between what we have and what mode 2 would add is the ability to go cold once it goes active. At the moment you have to sit there lasing the target till impact, whilst every other top tier AGM has already locked on and tracking the target whilst the launch aircraft is safely behind a hill.
I would simply apply the same logic to LOAL that we’ll be getting for everything else. last missile affected only. So yes, if you are fast enough, you could fire at more than 1 target when firing within 9km … but how would that differ from literally any powered FnF weapon currently in-game .
The only problematic mode of Brimstone is the ability to ripple fire them over a hill and take out the entire enemy team with autonemous search and destroy
you can lase at any point during travel. you can launch IOG safely from behind a hill keep an eye on the impact timer, and then pop up to lase for the last 5-10s if you want.
Then they can just add LOBL Brimstone with a 9km range and inability to lock the ground, but it’ll still be mmW which we know they’re hesitant to add in the first place.
Spice 250: Pop up > find and lock target > launch > get to cover > eventually target gets hit
Brimstone: launch > eventually pop up > find and lock target > target gets hit
Spice-250 also require you to slam on the airbrakes which renders them DOA in air modes and a pain to use in GRB.
They also cannot be used from low alt without lofting them which then makes you an easy target.
Spice-250 are also not present on the Tornado GR4 and the ONLY reason its at 12.3 and not 11.3/11.7 that I can determine is because it has Brimstones.
A Rafale can fly in low, fire off AASMs and run away immediately. Typhoon has to sit there guiding them in during the terminal phase otherwise they’ll miss all whilst you have Pantsirs and co firing at you.