Regular flares can be discriminated from a real contact though the use of Radial Rate filter
This is an oversimplified Visualisiation of the basic tracking principle of a Contrast target and does not take into account any IRCCM or advanced seeker algorithms (as I have noted in the picture itself.)
hmmm, i wonder what that blinding light thats targeting my seeker from the direction of my target is… must have been the wind.
HoJ isnt a miracle, its a significant function to prevent the funny little laser beam from making a missile useless.
The current issue with LDIRCM is that is functions less like “a beam” and more like a force field. Now i personally really like using CLAWS or NASAMS in general with 9X missiles. And against helis, ive also tried to fire the 9Xs at different release angles (thanks to the launcher being angled and able to be rotated) in quick succession.
The end result is the same. The game does not care about “bro you dont get it, its not a pin point line but a beam” and instead its a complete zone in which no matter how fast in succession or from which angle the IR missile gets veered off from its course.
Now personally i wouldnt give a shit too much even if its unrealistic to have force field on helis as that is atleast one way to survive an increasingly more long range IR SAMs IF the system was actually modeled with a built in cooldown to simulate having to switch targeting from one to the other missile. But thats not the case.
Additionally, when it comes to the beam, incomplete jamming (i.e. not completely on the missile) is not effective enough to mask the target, so even smaller changes position can still let a modern IR (IIR) SAM to continue guiding in without even considering the other options the missile has at its discretion like the HoJ, continuous DL, etc.
Now the most simple reason why things are how they are is because its easier to implement it as a zone denial rather than a standalone module that has to target missiles individually and that the implementation could either just not work with the engine we have ingame (its already a miracle it can function with most modern equipment ingame) or wouldnt be effective at all (just look at MUSS implementation).
From purely gameplay perspective in context of fairness over poorly implemented mechanic while still being based in reality, the LDIRCM systems should have a built in cooldown of 0.2-1s (adjustable for balance) between missile interceptions, that way overwhelming a helicopter with IR missiles is a valid counterplay that forces the helicopter players to play smart while still offering a blanket of protection instead of current situation where a fire and forget loaded helicopter can fly unobstructed against both IR SAM AD and ARH SAM AD (different topic) with only SACLOS being the only valid and under-performing counterplay outside of a single SPAA ingame.