Hi, I would like to address the topic of helicopters and the way SPAA operates. This issue has been raised many times before, but Gaijin has done very little to address it. Instead of improving the situation, they keep making it worse, to the disadvantage of SPAA.
More specifically, helicopter spawn points are too close to the battlefield and are often hidden behind hills. This gives players the opportunity to climb slightly above the spawn point, fire their missiles, and then land again to replenish their ammunition, while players operating SPAA have very little they can do about it.
These helicopter spawn points should be located at a significantly greater distance from the battlefield, if not at the same distance as aircraft spawn points. This would give SPAA players a fairer chance to detect and engage helicopters before they can launch their weapons and retreat safely to rearm.
Secondly, if I am not mistaken, I have checked the available data for several SPAA vehicles.
or example, let’s take the Mi-28NM helicopter. Assuming a distance of around 10 km, which is roughly the current distance of the helicopter spawn points…
At a 10 km range, a helicopter like the Mi-28NM cannot kinetically “out-turn” or dodge a high-speed missile like the Aster 30 or IRIS-T SL, because these surface-to-air missiles fly at supersonic speeds (Mach 3 to Mach 4.5+) and pull massive G-forces far exceeding any helicopter’s agility.
And, for example, a missile Aster 30 (SAMP/T): Uses active radar homing (ARH). Radar-guided missiles do not care about infrared flares or DIRCM laser-jamming pods. If the SAMP/T radar locks onto a 10 km target, the kinematic speed and radar guidance make evasion nearly impossible unless the helicopter hugs the ground tightly to use terrain masking (multipathing)
And IRIS-T SL: Uses an imaging infrared (IIR) seeker. While susceptible to specialized directional jamming from certain aspects, it carries high off-boresight agility and severe closing speeds that leave virtually zero reaction time for a manual pilot dodge at 10 km
So, to sum up, at such a distance, as well as at greater distances in the case of other SPAA systems, it would simply become a “death zone” for helicopters and CAS.