I am curious if any ARH+IOG weapon system that is carried on aircraft have the ability to lock onto ground targets? For example the F-14 A/B with its AIM-54 Phoenix or the Tornado IDS MFG with its AS.34 Kormoran Anti Ship Missile. Other weapons systems include the R-27ER. I ask this question simply because I got a lock onto airfield AAA with my Tornado and was able to fire the AS.34. So now I’m curious.
PS. any IR A2A weapon technically has the ability to lock onto hot enough ground targets. we learned that with an F15 and a sidewinder irl and i think it would be fun to add to WT as an easter egg or something.
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in game no AAM can currently lock ground targets unfortunately, but as you said, some IR ones should according to IRL (sidewinder, and also mistral, used against pickup trucks)
the kormoran is in a weird spot, and i noticed my Super etendard could also detect airfield AAs too, but idk if that is true to real life or not tbh.
as for adding it, why not, would make some pretty interesting situations X)
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At least for the US developed AIM-7, AIM-9 and AIM-120, they can be launched without a lock IRL and used as more expensive A2G rockets. I’m not sure that’s what you are looking for, but it’d be an interesting capability to have.
This being said, apparently the AIM-9B could, in certain tests, lock the hot engine exhaust of a civilian pickup truck in reality. AIM-9X should have no issue locking up anything hot, and has been successfully used as a small AGM IRL.
For non US manufactured weapons, the Mistral III missile has been successfully used against small rigid hulled inflatable boats. Tanks shouldn’t be much of a leap for the Mistral.
Cannot remember any other A2A weapons known to have successfully engaged ground assets IRL.
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Technically the AGM-114L and Brimstone are ARH+iog
They’re specifically designed as AGMs though
During the Falklands. Sea harriers discovered that the Aim-9L was locking onto ships in.the taskforce and so prepared to use them in that capacity against any Argentine ships they encountered.
When a surface target was detected, a flight of sea harriers were dispatched and they armed Aim-9Ls on approach to the target location but nothing was found (iirc) and so they were never actually used in that capacity.
Withwise to the AS-34s and the naval radar of the MFG. I’m guessing it’s just spaghetti code. They haven’t really modeled either component properly yet and it’s more of a bodge job. I guess you basically got a bug. Though I think they were suppose to be usable in that capacity or something irl
The MFG has a form of ground radar that is suppose to be only detect naval targets (though irl all tornados had the same and it should be able to detect more than just ships)
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Also, it’s a bit of a stretch, but any 2-way data linked missile should be able to be fired against ground targets, assuming the launching aircraft’s sensors can lock them.
For example, an F-14D could in theory lock a ground vehicle with it’s IRST. That is an acceptable lock to fire and guide the AIM-54 in on, so theoretically should work. Modern systems have heavily integrated Datalinks, which can guide a missile on practically any target information. So, there’s no reason why you couldn’t, say, fire an AIM-120 using a TISEO track, or an AIM-9X at a triangulated RWR position.
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