That is not the total drag value, it is a coefficient combined with other factors.
The CxK of the AIM-120A was initially 1.6 not 1.425. The AIM-120C-5 was added prior to the report that fixed the drag value on the AIM-120A. It had a lower coefficient than the AIM-120A at the time of 1.55.
Whatever the current performance of the AIM-120C-5, it will likely be higher when it is ultimately implemented on live and the same fixes are applied to the missiles data file. It also should have a lower WingAreaMult line, inferior fin AoA & acceleration which would also yield less maneuvering losses.
I agree actually. I think it would be very good if the soviet planes had the edge at close range. They should have to weave under the barrage of Aim120 and get rewarded for closing the gap with close range R77 and R73. But unless their FM gets fixed properly, they need at least one advantage.
That would lead to imbalance because the AIM-120 is easy to avoid, just continue defending until they are out of missiles and suddenly the teams with Su-27’s are winning every match.
Still need to do that and how ever advantageous is the close range, you will probably in a disadvantageous position to win a fight since you have just dodged 4 ARAAMs.
But… thats practically how things are now, no? R-77 is useless for BVR as of now, so you had to hit the deck, weave under missile fire to get within that “DIE” range of R-77 and R-73. Only difference that Su-27 cant stay and fight well enough (or show that edge)
People have been saying you’ll be in a disadvantageous position after dodging radar missiles since radar missiles have been added to the game. That has almost never been true.
I found the AIM-120 to be equally useless.
Same thing, but the AIM-9M is more effective at the moment and the Su-27 FM is dog poo.
Both sides will be diving for the deck in both situations.
In the current situation, the only moment the Su-27 is able to retaliate is when the F16/F15 is within 10km in their 3-9, which is prime positioning for an Aim 9M launch in the next 20 seconds.
The 20km HMD will probably help a lot, at least to extend that range to a 12-15km launch. The Mirage is able to counter the AMRAAM spam thanks to 20km HMD + MICA.
But fixing the Su-27 FM would go a long way to enable a more agressive playstyle. Having to “wait until it’s your turn to play” always feel very bad.
Dude, try to figure out the modifications of the Su-family aircraft. The Su-33 is much heavier, it can carry 12 missiles, it has the same shitty radar as the Su-27. It probably has the same shitty RWR. It has similar weapons to the Su-27.
Depends how you look at it, F15A demolishes the Flanker in a dogfight, it’s also kinematically vastly superior for higher altitudes and speeds, to the point where it’ll sometimes equalise the gap with 7M vs 27ER. Much more countermeasures and although bad at holding STT, it’s not the abysmal radar of the Flanker. But I can see how in the more laid-back fur ball RB environment the flanker would be more ideal
Most of the time I don’t even bother trying to merge with an F-15 if it ever gets too close. The Flanker has the top speed advantage on the deck to out run the F-15 and gain separation to do a 180 and HMD + R-27ER the F-15 (same tactic I use for the MiG-29). Even if I do get into the merge its not like the Flanker is helpless, the R-73s exist to close the gap.
Is it really that big of a difference? I know the F-15 is superior at climbing but its not enough to gain a massive advantage enough to equalize the difference between the 7M and R-27ER. I’d know because I climb in the Flanker to fight F-15Cs.
It will help a little bit, but not much. It mostly just lowers the barrier to entry to flying the Su-27. Experienced Flanker pilots were already making use of IRST to establish HMD locks out to 20+km (conditions permitting). The addition of 20km HMD range really only is saving the Flanker pilot the extra time necessary to press the button to swap between IRST and radar. Maybe half a second. Half a second can matter but it’s not game changing. It will make things more convenient. It will be an appreciated quality of life change for those situations where IRST failed to hand the lock over to radar or if fog/rain/clouds prevented the usage of IRST. But the only functionality that we’re gaining is a capability that we already had with a workaround.
The core problems faced by the flanker are that its missiles suck for everything except point blank ranges, and its flight model sucks for knife fights. There are other problems facing the Flanker but this is the crux of the problem behind it. It has a flight model that DESPERATELY wants to avoid close combat at all costs, but its weapon systems only hold any kind of advantage over its rivals in close range combat. Honorable mention to the 27ET being a sneaky sucker punch every now and then.
The only two things that will really fix the flanker is if Gaijin finally fixes Russia’s flight models so that they can actually compete WVR, or if they just give the Flanker the 27EA so that it can actually compete at long range as a missile boat.
I’m a sim player which plays much differently to RB, so different aspects matter more, and others matter less when you compare the jets in the two game-modes, so those out-running tactics for example aren’t as ideal in sim and furballs aren’t as frequent. You usually end up focused in 1v1, 1v2 situations unlike RB where you’re constantly picking between several potential targets in the fur ball with markers on, which I believe the Flanker is probably better at than the F15
I see people praising this missile all the time… In my experience, when fighting a player that is aware of you, and ready to spam flares as soon as you launch (not even pre-flare), I have nearly 0% hit rate with the R73. 99% of my hits are when the enemy lost awareness for a second and was late to flare, or if they decide to run and fully give me their rear aspect with afterburner. Some people say it’s unflareable below 1km, but I’ve certainly not seen that… I’m just finding the R73 nearly as helpless as the flight-model when the enemy is actually paying attention, certainly can’t rely on it in a 1v1.
The flanker is definitely not bad but at least compared to F15A, that was the general consensus with my BVR duel tests (this was like half a year ago). These duels are of course very specific scenarios where we start on the runway at the same time, meaning F15 gains a significant energy advantage at the beginning of the fight every time, so it might not be as forgiving as a normal realistic encounter would play out, the 15A did definitely close the gap between 7M and 27ER against the MIG29, however in general su27 won most duels, with some wins for the 7M. It depended much on the tactics used. breaking lock with notch is extremely strong if you’re quick to re-engage, which the F15 is VASTLY superior at due to the horrible Flanker radar.
Speaking of notching, the flankers don’t even get a digital RWR until the 27SM. I always get a laugh about american mains complaining about the RWR on the F-4S and F-14A being “unusable garbage”. Booo hoo it doesn’t fingerprint every opponent and all it does is tell you PRECISELY what angle that the threat is incoming from so that you can notch perfectly. I’ll take America’s “unusable Garbage” over the SPO-15 every day of the week.
I mean J11A in theory received an upgrade to RWR with the MAWS but GAIJING denies any J11A upgrades except for the ones visible (I thought they were blind). I wonder what the Su30 RWR will be if it comes, cause it should be a bit better especially since it was based off SU27M-UB.
I don’t have much clips of the R-73 but I do have a clip where 3 of my R-73s track an F-16AM ignoring flares. 2 of the R-73s failed to hit because of my over ambiguous launch parameters.
I mean same goes for the 9Ms. As long as you’re 100% paying attention they’re easy to dodge but IMO the R-73s have much higher chance of being “unflarable” than the 9M.
Testing the Su-27SM vs F-15C with combat load:
Su-27SM with 4 x R-73, 1 x R-27ER, 2 x R-27ET, 3 x R-77, 30mins of fuel
F-15C with 2 x Aim-9M, 6 x Aim-120A, 35mins of fuel
(I bring more fuel on the F-15C because it slightly drinks more fuel)
Test conditions, runway to 1000kmh IAS then 30degree climb to 10000m altitude F-15C: 1 minute and 41 seconds then leveling out with M0.99 speed in reserve Su-27SM: 1 minute and 45 seconds then leveling out with M0.97 speed in reserve