Against a MAW-less plane (or one that can’t detect burnt out missiles) a long range IR missile can be advantageous
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ASRAAM is still fairly long range for an IR missile.
Is that the case? I remember seeing somewhere that it is a longer burn missile.
Yes, but still not as much as IR MICA or IR MICA NG
All in all they all have their niches … Best choice will depend on the scenario …
But ASRAAM’s lack of thrust vectoring (compared to IRIS-T / AIM-9X / MICA) and lack of range (compared to MICA / MICA NG) makes it quite situational …
Not great for point black
Not great for long range
You have to fire it in the sweet spot
There’s also the fact that currently EF’s MAW doesn’t make any emissions
If they did, you would have to make a choice between having a MAW or staying off people’s RWR, making a long range IR missile even more potent …
In defense of the radar MAW, I don’t expect it to make significant emissions beyond it’s max detection range, so I don’t think it would be detectable beyond like, 20, 30km ?
The Speed
The Speed is the whole point
hit a target before he gets a chance to hit you
And the maws has a low range at a low wavelength it is unlikely you will be detecting at long distances
You are forgetting that such systems are not only low power, but also incorporate LPI features. Ofc, at closer ranges it would be detectable, but dont expect it to be a second radar.
And if we wanted to go that way, i want my RWR to detect all radar altimeters etc…
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You know what else has LPI features ?
It starts with RBE2, and ends with -AESA. I guess i want my rafale to not get detected by other RWR in game
iirc, the RAF basically realised that with how advanced IIR seekers are and how difficult they are to defeat, that if you had to aircraft with similar range weapons fire at each other, they would both die most of the time.
So instead the ASRAAM was created with a “shoot first, Kill first” philopshy. The entire design is based around the idea of killing your target before they can kill you. Which is why speed was the most important attribute for the ASRAAM. Range just came from having all that speed.
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I mean … You could say the same about range …
And if you are both within ASRAAM’s range, and you both launch, yes, perhaps you will get the kill first, but you still have a missile coming your way.
So “hit a target before he gets a chance to hit you” is actually not that great.
But range enables you to “hit a target before he gets a chance to launch at you” …
I know, there are multitude of radars in game that should have such capability, but lack it as of now.
The point is though, in ranges where MICA IR would hold an advantage over ASRAAM, The Typhoon wont be firing an ASRAAM, it will be firing a Meteor, and to that end, I doubt the Rafale would be firing a MICA either, instead they too would be firing a Meteor.
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Radar altimeter isn’t that critical anyways …
Keep in mind that matches aren’t 1v1
Triggering people’s RWR, even if only at short ranges, can alert other people to your presence that otherwise would not be aware of you …
But the same argument holds for the use of the ASRAAM. In the range a typhoon can fire an ASRAAM, both would have fire meteors…
Also, the use case of the IR in this case is for undetected long range shots, in which case the MICA would have the range advantage, whereas the ASRAAM would be able to capitalize on the Rafale mistake of going in the range of the ASRAAM
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As I said above, that’s a bit contradictory
If IIR missiles are so good that you can’t escape, you don’t want to “kill the enemy before he kills you”
You want to kill the enemy before he launches (“the undefeatable missile”) at you … And range is what enables that, not speed …
But it would still be detectable and always on
Find it dishonest that you think that MICA-IR is a WVR but also a BVR
Like people have said it wasn’t comparing to MICA and acting like people were lying to say that was is just dishonest itself
ASRAAM is WVR missile
MICA and MICA-IR is a BVR
That’s not the point though
They could technically add a way to turn radar altimeter off (say game option), and you could turn it off without losing much …
MAW on the other hand, is quite critical and will become even more critical moving forward … You will lose a significant defensive capability by turning it off …
Radar altimeter is honestly currently more of a “cool factor” can’t remember the last time I actually used it … Due to measuring the altitude directly below you it’s not even that useful for avoiding terrain in Gaijin’s fantasy world that sometimes is completely covered by clouds …
Plus, almost all (top tier) planes have radar altimeters, but not all planes have a radar based MAW …
What happens when you have a lot of speed and low drag
“A lot of speed” and “low drag” are relative terms
It’s quite clear that IR MICA (Let alone IR MICA NG) will out range ASRAAM by quite a margin …