Modern spectral flare are also made to physically look similar to the plane itself in shape to confuse the seeker
Are they?
Could you please provide me with something about this, i would love to see how they do it.
Im saying this, as turning this
Into this
Is a very hard task
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Spectral flares at nowhere near as magical as he makes them out to be.
They’re quite literally just normal flares adjusted to match the spectral signature of its intended target for protection, and vs imaging seekers likely only have the chance to work at ranges where the incoming missile seeker doesnt yet have the resolution to determine the aircraft (since seekers had low resolutions like 128x128), and even then, LRC IRCCM would likely defeat it.
Spatially distributed flares like BOL are likely the only ones with a decent chance vs modern IIR missiles, and even then, their effectiveness relies heavily on aircraft positioning relative to the incoming missile.
This likely explains why the EFT uses radar MAWS alongside the DASS’ ability to dictate optimal evasive maneuvers to the pilot via HUD/HMD/VW.
Rafales magical spectral flares are just flares optimized to prevent missiles from activating spectral IRCCM, as stated by the manufacturer:
It likely has little no effect vs other types of IRCCM employed by modern IIR threats.
Realistically speaking, I dont think there are any flares in modern times that are reliably effective vs modern IIR missiles, which is likely why everyone tries to stay as far away from them as possible. At the point where you are within the NEZ of an IIR missile, your likely only chance is basically a “throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks” kind of deal. (Dump flares, adjust course as optimally as possible, DLIRCM if you have it, try to fire a missile like IRIS-T to intercept the threat, etc…)
As a final note, theres a chance the flares used here are MTV flares, and its an M2K from what I can tell, but gives you a good idea of what a modern IIR missile would be looking at when flares are deployed, even if they were spectral flares:
(Pic from Lacroix themselves btw)
That just isnt going to work vs any kind of image recognition they’d be employing.
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and thus ASRAAM.
Ngl, I think ASRAAM is a little stupid too tbh. The idea seems smart “fire missile first and have it get there before the enemy can fire a missile” but its outranged by stuff like R-27ET/MICA IR, along with every ARH there is, so you likely arent firing first. You’d need to somehow be in a situation where both your side and the enemy sides battle management sucked so bad you somehow got within IIR range, and you somehow noticed them first. Its a super niche case. I think there’s a good reason basically nobody else went that way with missile development or procurement.
I do think the idea of an IIR missile which can pull double duty and do self protection like IRIS-T likely makes more sense, since you primarily wont be firing IIR at jets, you’ll be firing ARH. IRL, if you’re firing IIR at an enemy jet, something likely went seriously wrong. Even having very long range IIR like MICA IR is a little odd if it doesnt have datalink imo.
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I think the main competition the ASRAAM was really meant to take on though was R-73 and the theorized next gen of soviet missile that might have similar IIR ability. R-27ET might outrange it, but its not IIR.
Sure MICA IR outranges it, but despite france being the biggest pain in the butt for England in the last 800 years, there was and still isnt an expectation of a conflict there.
In that ASRAAM does its job.
Both R-74M and R-74M2 have less range. As does PL-10.
Then there is also just Meteor to really outrange them.
Also procurement you have to take with a pinch of salt given that the US blocked most sales
PL-10 is more of an IRIS-T contemporary from the looks of it.
But the point still stands, theres basically no scenario vs a peer or near peer adversary where you’d be happy to be in a situation where you have to choose to fire an ASRAAM over your ARH missiles. It gives you an advantage in a scenario you should never be in.
A decent compairison would be like having a fantastic APFSDS dart for 155mm SPG’s. You could say “we have the most effective direct fire anti tank capability of all SPG!” and its like, ok thats true, but if your SPG is meeting an enemy tank, a lot of people screwed up big time, and that SPG’s crew is going to need new underwear if they survive the ordeal…
ASRAAM will likely be fantastic for WT tho, since ARH missiles arent nearly as good as they are IRL and the maps are generally pretty small. A missile optimized for a videogame made a decade+ after it lol
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True, but Im personally looking forward to ASRAAM as it would fit my playstyle way more than IRIS-T. Truth is, range is going to be far more powerful than agility in-game I think for these weapons. Let alone the sheer speed of the ASRAAM, and think its IRL service record has been pretty good so far. Especially used on the Raven
IRIS-T will not have its self protection ability in-game. I can garantee it. Its likely to be the worst of the IIR’s when they’re added, since it’ll be missing a major part of what could make it competitive imo.
Well, probably will be usable like any other missile for MCM, if the lock ranges are decent enough, Though so will all IIRs probably. I doubt we’d see RWR slaving though, at least not straight away
R-74M2 has a max range of 50km
R-74M has a max range of 40km
i dont know if there are different numbers for the ASRAAM but from that i would say that it dosent have more range
I dont think RWR slaving will be healthy for the game, much like LOAL should never be added imo. IRIS-T would likely be using MAWS info for interceptions tho, since it offers range, speed and bearing info. I think if gaijin allowed that to be a thing, it’d be fine. Would make the missile have a unique advantage to counter all its other disadvantages without breaking the no-LOAL thing vs other players vehicles. Like I said tho, its never happening, IRIS-T will always be bad in-game.
Yeah… Im just hoping ASRAAM doesnt have the same flight model as CAMM
That would be weird since it is stated that the Rafale is intended to be capable of countering electro-optical threats.
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I still hope for a 360 degree hmd like lock. (I have a picture where you can use your HMD in a 360 degree sphere, but in the part of the sphere outside of HMD reach the lock would jump from target to target (which are provided by DASS))