From some basically modelling in game Flame hit around mach 4.5.
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Speaking of this, do you guys information on what kind of seeker the ASRAAM has ? I saw that MICA has 2D IR arrays, while IRIS-T has 2 1D arrays. I would guess ASRAAM has some form of 2D array since it’s closer to the category of the MICA in range, and you’d want a long range seeker. Also, could be interesting if we got the IFOV of the seeker, since it would give a good idea on how powerful the seeker is (since it can kind of be compared to a normal IR seeker gate with angle, if you stick to hotspot detection). Also, depending on the band of the IR seeker (MWIR or LWIR), the seeker would perform better against skin temperature, engine exhaust and countermeasures, which would have an impact on BOL type flares as well as spectral type flares
TBH I will agree it seems like black magic to me with an only surface level view…
Concept seems to remind me of like a Tokyo drift where you spin the back of the missile out to reposition the booster into the direction you want to go around the nose as a pivot.
In Gaijins case, just make the missile match the stats and there’s no problem whether or not they believe it’s possible. Evidently it beat PY-4 and AIM-9X BLK 1 for a reason.
My understanding was that IIR missiles kinda go off of a UV/IR picture and try and match it (insanely dumbed down so feel free to point out a hole in that understanding). So surely a standard flare even if it is of a wide variety of wavelengths is still not going to match that signature?
Then is seems only something like BOL which would create a large cloud and allow the aircraft to maneuver out of the seeker FoV and also linger for a long time would be suitable to defeat such a missile?
Would expect spectral to be limited in effectiveness to a maximum of UV+IR missiles like PY-4
Flare rejection on IIR is likely image matching, seeker push ahead and flare rate bias. So BOL IR would work well in a few aspects, but push ahead and rate bias could result in the IR cloud being rejected in others.
I’m not sure how a spectral flare would work to decoy IIR without being volumetric.
Even if the cloud is rejected it still obscures the whole jet from view missile can’t correct for something when it has no idea, so iirc they just fly straight and wait for reacquire. Kinda turns it into what we experience currently with missiles like TY-90 rather than this missile is straightup unflareable. I’d imagine you’d have to ensure it was rear aspect so the IR cloud would obscure you completely and give you a chance to maneuver out of the seeker FoV and without shutoff catching you too?
Me neither, but I’m far less clued up on seekers than you.
I’m not sure what you mean about volumetric. I’ve been told that the rafale flares were capable of imitating the (spectral ?) shape of the rafale, so I don’t know if it would be what you are talking about ?
I don’t know much about flares, I’m not sure I understand the difference between normal flares and BOL and between BOL and spectral flares
This is clear marketing lies.
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Ah okay, BOL creates a literal cloud of countermeasures ! So it would work against any seeker has it would just blind them (unless the seeker works in a wave band not covered by the BOL)
And spectral flares recreate the spectral image of the plane its dispensed from ? If so, why would it be ineffective against IIR ? I would understand that Spectral flares are specifically built to spoof IIR, since the seeker would literally see multiple aircraft and would have to chose the correct one.
Do planes like the EFT also have access to Spectral flares ? They would help I’d guess with the BOL. BOL creating a blanket, and spectral flares dropping decoys to fool the missile
Spectral flares just match the planes engine wavelength so very effective against a 2 colour seeker. Not so much against IIR.
Yes, EFT also employs spectral flares from the 55mm dispensers.
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I see. I’ve heard about the rafale flare reproducing the shape of the plane in some way (I thought this was spectral flares), but that was from someone that worked at MBDA long ago, so I’ll try to look into that. Thanks for the explanation
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Explanation of 2 colour seeker
Spectral flares match the plane temperature, countering such technology
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I thought this was only a thing for radar homing where an active decoy copies the planes radar signature while being able to increase or decrease the radar return (like a variable chaff) making it a more tempting target than the actual plane while simultaneously being able to hide it.
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Maybe. The person that told me about this probably wasn’t directly involved in the program and it was like 30 years ago, so there’s probably innacuracies. I’ve found out who makes the counter measures for the rafale so I’ll check if there’s any information about them when I have time
This is more so Mica having too much propellent in game iirc, and a co-incidence.
Still no HUD tint
At this stage in the update “season” we’ll have to wait till next major for anything I reckon. But hopefully dev server this weekend and we’ll see if any changes have come
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