At this point I kinda just accepted it, and am hoping that more modern variants of the Paveway at least get better seekers. So I was very happy to hear the new Tornado was getting Paveway IV and EGBU-24. So tomorrow I will get to see if their seekers are any different (hint: IRL nothing about the seeker changed, I wonder why?).
Then there is also the big funny that Paveway III share the same seeker range as Paveway IIs despite being significantly larger, but oh well, I don’t know what the real value for that thing is either, so fair enough. AFAIK the laser seeker values of most other weapons are a bit made up as well.
The USAAF fought nobody with a somehow equal airforce (regarding numbers) since spring 1944…after they suffered heavy losses without noticeable success in A2A combat above Europe and North Africa 1942 - 1943.
In the Pacific the majority of experienced fighter pilots of IJN were gone after the Battle of Midway in 1942 - together with the majority of their combat ready fleet carriers. So just a numbers game for the USN/USMC pilots after that.
Any further combats & conflicts were just asymmetric wars regarding air power, either they totally outnumbered opponents or those had no airforce. Even in Korea total US/UN losses exceeded CHN/USSR/NK aircraft losses.
Depending on the bombs and the score multiplier? Quite sufficient.
The p-51H can instakill bases with 2 firebombs and almost max out on reward (max reward is 13.2K sl/15 min for 1050 score, I got 11.4k with 400 sth score).
The origins of these is a mystery of its own as Lockeheed engineers don’t attribute them to any buiild equipment. Did the airforce add them themselves? Was it so secret it stil can’t be discussed? Why where they later removed/sealed shut? Was there a replacement piece of equipment?
