Why? The only benefit they have over current IR missiles is they have the ability to fire through smoke which just reduces only one of three ways you can already defeat them, and most players aren’t even aware that F&F missiles are headed their way to engage in effective counterplay.
And I don’t mind the BR being raised if it’s warranted, and while I don’t agree with it, Gaijin already artificially nerfs loadouts for the sake of balance so… it really isn’t a stretch to introduce it at this point.
People already incorrectly thing faster matches = faster progression [it doesn’t].
People already prefer smaller maps to make weaker armored tanks more equal to T-90M and 2A7V.
People do not need yet another reason to prefer urban maps; SPAA players just need to communicate when CAS is in the air, and ARHs need to stay out of the game until random battles can ban specific weapon types.
IF and when Gaijin can ban specific weapons from random battles, say AGM-114Ls are banned from random matches, sure they can be added for people that want to use them in custom battles.
Weapon banning isn’t even in the game and faster matches is kinda besides the point though, and most maps aside from open desert maps already provide adequate cover from helicopter F&F missiles as of now.
If Gaijin reaches a point (and they’re slowly getting there with the amount of powercreep and F&F spam from aircraft) they will have to tweak the game and add mechanics to make it playable eventually, which leads to things like loadout balancing and others. Personally, I think adding clutter that makes locking missiles difficult would already alleviate the issues we are currently having with the F&F spam, and Gaijin continues dancing around the point that it’s too powerful for years now feels kinda half-assed.
Also currently US/UK/Japanese/Chinese top helis are stuck without an equal, and I think Longbow Apaches have it the worst as of now: The AGM-114K is one of the slowest top tier helicopter missiles which has difficulty hitting moving targets and those that pass into trees even, and require a very long lase time unopposed for it to connect. You have Ka-52s, Mi-28s, Tiger helis, AH-60s, and AH129s dominating the scene with great missiles of their own, (and the Z-10 can somewhat compensate with decent AA missiles). Basically that leaves the Apaches in this state where they’re stuck with 10.3 BR missiles trying to contend at top BRs. The only way I can see the Apaches to stand out at this point is either to give it proper IOG for the Hellfires so that LOAL with a SALH missile is possible, or buddy lasing with the K Hellfires, or just giving it the Longbow variant.