Harrier thermal signature way too high?

Yeah so uh, even the G.91YS would be colder then the F-117 from rear aspect. Its engines are just that hot atm.

Since the G.91YS has the hotter J85-GE-13s then the A/C for whatever reason.

The F-5 should be pretty well characterized due to its extensive use as a testing platform.

https://sci-hub.sidesgame.com/10.2514/6.2001-391

Well, one could compare the heat signature of the F-117 to the F/A-18A (without afterburner): Would they have the same heat signature in the game?

Same engine, but the F-117’s exhaust being designed to optimize mixing of hot engine with cold ambient air and thus diffusing the heat signature…

The F-117 has a bit less then half the heat an F/A-18A without afterburner. The F-117’s heat suppression is 0.5x from the rear. 0.06 from the side, and 0.006 from the front.

Versus regular aircraft having like, 1x rear, 0.6x side, 0.012x front? I think? Im not entirely sure i’m remembering these numbers right though.

Also the F-117’s engines just have slightly lower base thrust then the F/A-18A’s, 4100 versus like 4700.

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Yeah, the Harrier heat signature is a mess at the moment. There is 2 major parts to this, the first is just how much “heat” the Harrier produces.

The other is that the thrust curve is inverted. So as you reduce your airspeed (like say, when jinking a missile) you are actually making your aircraft hotter and thus harder to defeat a missile.

Me and @MatrixRupture tested this a while ago now, a 600+ kts. An R-60M fired from 3km in rear-aspect was instantly defeated by a flare. At 420kts, a fairly typical speed to be at during a dogfight, 8x flares did not defeat the R-60M fired under the same conditions.

There is a lot to said about both the exhaust position and being able to VIFF and turn a rear-aspect shot into a side aspect shot with the wing between the exhaust and the seeker, but until directional exhaust is added to aircraft. That isnt changing anytime soon.

For now, the greatest hope is for this report to be actioned

https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/jPnIHzJGkCvF?comment=PGhGeTDDamLQpZmeWF4ec65r

and this report regarding AN/ALE-40 to be accepted and actioned which would help with flare management

https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/KEQ0kPAn17nW

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Yea, that video comparing the F-117 and the F-5 is more like 2 different problems in one. The first being that the multiplier for the F-117 for the exhaust band is way too high. The second being the F-5 being way too damn cold, due to how heat signature is calculated in the game. From memory, the A-10 is hotter than an afterburning F-5.

Do you have a video of this? The heat should be calculated from base thrust and scale with RPM, so that shouldn’t be the case?

You also have Flame’s report covering thrust lost as speed increases

https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/h0CgrvJ9Uz5X

The tests in the second video are not consistently enough performed. And yeah double checking with old notes from others i’ve previously tested to confirm, the used value is the baseline thrust figure, not the active thrust figure.