How long will Aim120 be dominant?

Game Discussion Realistic Battle
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430

I agree. But by that logic, the Fakour-90 is a better missile than the AMRAAM.

I think a discussion on what makes a missile good hinges on its own capabilities, not the lack of capability of target players.

You cannot count on every target being bad. You can count on the missiles you fire being good. And from that standpoint, the AMRAAM has the least envelope for being good, in comparison to the rest of the modern ARHs.

If they ever rework seekers to be more unique this might change, but until then it’s not.

431

Or if they added decently sized maps. Especially in ARB.

432

A middle ground review using both aspects is best. In that, R-77-1 and AIM-120 end up mostly equal enough

433

Even then, it doesn’t change the fact that firing outside of ~10km is going to give the target ample time to avoid a missile.

Having better TTI below 10km is more important IMO than being able to extend the max range by getting high and fast.

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434

Which I agree with.

ARH missiles have 2 major attributes

Range and maneuvability.

As one increases the other decreases. But people for some reason seem to fixate on AMRAAM having the better range as a reason for it to be OP, without ever acknowledging that at closer ranges, say in a dogfight at sub 10km. Its by far one of the weakest.

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435

Yeah, very true. MICA for example is a doddle to defend against without even using chaff at medium range, but terrofying at close range. AMRAAM is certainly worthy showing more respect at medium range, but fairly trivial to deal with.

436

???

437

Screenshot 2025-03-26 045035

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438

Ok, thanks

439

You can go further than that. The AAM-4, PL-12 and SD-10 trade slightly in effective range with the AIM-120 for better envelope. And the MICA trades a fair amount of range for massively increased envelope.

All of this to say: No ARH “dominates”, every tech tree has a competitive missile. The AIM-120 only seems like it dominates because it is by far the most common missile at top tier.

Edit: and that isn’t going to change in the future either. Every tech tree that currently gets AIM-120 will likely get 120C-5 (and China) even when it will be equalled or even outpaced by other missiles.

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440

Also the bad ARB map design is perfect for just spamming AMRAAM, Aim-54 and F-90s down range and people still overly rely on MP to defend, meaning you will still get kills.

Its probably also note worthy to mention that aircraft like the F-15E and Typhoon can climb extremely well, and so can fire down which also helps greatly mitigate MP and people generally have a really bad understanding on how MP works, They see AMRAAMs getting kills despite “multipathing” but R-77s crash into the ground when fired low at someone low.

But yeah. For the most part quantity is to blame

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441

AAM-4’s “better envelope” is tiny and the amount its better is as well. For all intents and purposes its just an amraam in wt

442

minus the aim 54 part

443

Which only furthers my point. All of the top tier missiles are comparable. And generally are even percentagly better than the AIM-120, but for some reason it’s “the AMRAAM is OP”

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444

Nah, people spam them off and still get kills. They might not be all that good. And anyone with half a brain cell will survive. But everyone flying down a narrow corridor just creates a perfect environment for a rapid spam and someone will inevitably be killed due to over reliance on MP, especially as they are often fired high

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445

With how ppl are at top tier, AIM-26A and AIR-2 jets would be better off at 12.3 than 10.3 since everyone hugs ground so much

446

and these are the same people complaining about dying. and being shotdown. Half the people in Air Sim seem to want to fly 5ft off the ground as im raining aim 120bs down on them and then they complain.
i CHASED this guy from spawn camping the U.S Spawn all the way back to his airfield.
I dont care if you flee back to your airfield.

447

so can fire down which also helps greatly mitigate MP and people generally have a really bad understanding on how MP works,

Why are you telling them the secret :(

448

I mean, gaijin has accepted several bug reports for the AAM-4, and they have said they’re trying to fix the MICA’s range. IMO, there’s not too much issue as it currently is though. The R-77-1, Aim-120A/B, PL-12, and AAM-4 are all somewhat close to each other currently in game, and the Mica fills it’s own unique niche.

Yes, some missiles aren’t up to par, things like the R-Darter/Derby/R-77. But lets look at each of them and what planes they’re on.

R-Darter: The Missile that probably is suffering the most, is literally just a very slightly heavier derby, and unlike the derby, the few planes that (only) get it aren’t lower then their AMRAAM wielding counterparts. (Additionally, it’s on the fewest planes, and those planes get the least of them, leading to you seeing even less kills with them)

Derby: Honestly a bit worse then an AMRAAM, yes it can turn marginally tighter in some scenerios, but honestly a downgrade, and the thing is that’s actually reflected in game, it’s lower in the modification research trees to amraams, and planes that only have it (the F-16D barrack II, Kfir C.10), are actually a lower BR then it’s amraam slinging cousins (13.3 vs 13.7 in the barack’s case). Now, 14.0 does eat up all of these BRs, so that’s kinda not that great, but once the BR cap raises up a bit more to pull the pressure off of it it will actually be a bit worthwhile.

R-77: As the main large red team competator to the aim-120, it’s honestly not great. And it’s implementation is about as fair as possible, sure it’s drag is to high, but it actually lofts in game unlike irl, which actually helps it’s not great range out a decent bit. While yes, 1 to 1 it’s worse then an amraam, you also need to consider the fact the platforms it’s on are missile busses, a Su-27SM carrying 6x R-77s, 2x R-27ETs, and 4x R-73s, to a F-15C’s 8x Aim-120 loadout. While a worse individual missile, flankers make up for it with a large overall missile kit. And the R-77-1 does exist as a more individually strong rival to the amraam.

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