Nah, they’ll try and claim ASRAAM because of the few test firings on the F-16s and the RAAF F-18 that used ASRAAM
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Its possible. I think MICA/ASRAAM will be better ingame simply due to the ease of use and the fact all missiles can reliably be used to intercept other missiles, meaning the range advantage is all that really matters in-game at that point.
irl the IRIS-T has the secondary role of semi-automatic aircraft self protection, which is not stated to be a MICA/ASRAAM capability (though it might be, but until proven otherwise, I assume it isnt). This would allow jets equipped with it to be more aggressive with the ARH’s and would have secondary benefits in SAM contested airspaces as well, which might alternatively give it the edge.
already saw a bug report that demanded that the IRIS-T should be added to the F-18 once it gets added to the game
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Given ASRAAM being used in a certain conflict and the main things it been shooting down is drones and missiles. I think its reasonable to assume ASRAAM can be used for that. No idea though if the RAF pro-actively use it for that though from a Typhoon
France offered the MICA to the UK as an alternative to ASRAAM, the reasons given for rejecting it were:
- At 112 kg it is too heavy for some missile launchers (for example Eurofighter’s ITSPL pylons were designed to fire a 90 kg missile at 9g, and would have to have the g limit lowered for MICA).
- It is a purely digital missile meaning it cannot be used on any analogue aircraft.
- It is incompatible with existing missile launch rails causing interoperability problems with other nations / aircraft.
Other nations may have had similar objections.
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I think theres a destinction to be made between intercepting cruise missiles, and intercepting incoming SAMs and AAMs.
That being said, an alternative theory for the IRIS-Ts success could just be cost. Seems like the MICA is in the ballpark of $2.7mil per round, which is insanely expensive, with the AIM-9X being around $1.1mil, the IRIS-T ~$500k, and the ASRAAM allegedly only $225k?
Some of the numbers seem dubious to me, but thats just what I could find quickly.
MICA also seems stupid expensive from what I can find. To the point where it reaply makes me question why anyone would bother using the stupid thing if the numbers are accurate…
because of the superior french technology /s
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Which is why the Indian Rafale will the best with ASRAAM :P
Meteor
Honestly, could just be that the French are screwing ppl by selling them the Rafales, then doing as the US do and barring the integration of anything but the MICA for IR munitions, letting them rob ppl blind.
I thought the indian Rafales used MICA as well? The $2.7mil number comes from a 2012 indian deal
I think they are swapping or something
The ASRAAM is one of the most advanced missiles available and Indian Air Force (IAF) selected it as its future unified air-to-air combat weaponry within visual range (WVR). The ASRAAM will replace the older French Magic II and Russian R-73 Vympel, and will be integrated on all IAF fighters, including the Sukhoi Su-30MKI, Rafale, and future Tejas. - Source
Interesting. I cant imagine the French are happy about that. Good for the indians tho.
Hehehe, yeah, but does make sense for them to standardise all their aircraft to use the same missile. Sounds a like a logistical nightmare to use multiple.
IIRC the UK was trying to keep the family of weapons memorandum alive. The US wanted the FoW memorandum dead; but unless Britain broke it’s obligations the US needed Britain’s consent in order to dissolve it. So by continuing to meet its obligation Britain was able to extract concessions out of the US in exchange for cancelling the MOU (they were after a significant discount an the price of AMRAAMs if I remember correctly). Got to love geo-politics!
The FoW is also how the US ended up lumped with AIM-9X. They were banned from developing any new IR missiles, but the were allowed to upgrade existing ones, so had to go down the rout of fitting a new seeker and TVC module to AIM-9M.
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Poor guys are gonna have to wait for block 3 for any real range improvements XD. Even then, i doubt it would have ASRAAM type range. Maybe better than IRIS-T, But not by much.
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Ty for the correction, the number seemed way off.
Thats even worse for the MICA tho, not that much more expensive compared to the other AAMs, yet its only really used on the Rafale/M2Ks, with india ditching the MICA for the ASRAAM on their jets entirely it seems…
Yep, would be really funny if block 1 came with the ASRAAM and IRIS-T
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