True, but as we saw in 2023. We are lucky if we get 2 or 3 additions for entire TT at any BR. Im just afraid that the Cheetah would replace the Hawk, Gnat, Vulcan or even something really low, like a Barracuda or Mosquitto bomber.
Just dubious about getting SA stuff when we have so much important stuff we could be geting instead.
Personally believe that the Hawk would be the best and easiest thing they could add. It’s all the same aircraft even between Hawk 100 and 200. From what I can tell it’s analogous to the Skyhawk with the low weight and good A/G armaments.
Slow, large and unmanoverable cruise missiles are an entirely different topic to air-to-air missiles that are much faster, smaller and pulling high Gs themselves in attempt to hit their target.
Not to mention that ASRAAM, like most modern SRAAM, has LOAL, so this says nothing about lock on range either.
I have my doubts that either IRIS-T nor ASRAAM can generate a direct hit against enemy AAMs, but ASRAAMs laser proximity fuse is much more likely to not trigger
The seeker assisted radar proximity fuze and the large warhead give the missile a remarkable anti-missile capability.
Which kinda confirms my theory that it can still fuse on a near miss where a laser proximity fuse wouldnt. Doesnt make sense otherwise to even go for radar proxy, its so much worse in terms of ECM and chaff resistance (though the seeker assistance probably helps with that)