The problem with long-range satellite bombs is still that there is no equivalent to the Pantsir in other nations. For example, the FlaRakRad has only two missiles and cannot track bombs and missiles beyond 4 km. If an Su-25SM3 appears at 15 km, you can’t engage it immediately (unlike the Pantsir), so you have to wait until it’s 12 km away, at which point it has already launched two KH-38 missiles. Since you’ve wasted one shot that won’t hit due to the VT-1 nerf, you can only try to intercept one missile. You can only see it at around 4 km, and given the speed of the KH-38, you’re likely out of luck because you can’t escape in time and have to wait 20 seconds to reload while being unarmed.
If every nation had a system like the Pantsir, the GROM-1 wouldn’t be a problem, as you could engage it just like the Pantsir, which is designed specifically for this task.
How much time has passed, and people are still crying on Pantsir. What does it mean if they were? You specifically cite short-range air defense models that can be added to countries other than the USSR and China. I can only name Spyder AIO - it’s an Israeli development. I can also call iris t, as far as I remember there is an autonomous modification, but this is not a fact. All. The fact that there are no normal fully autonomous short-range complexes is not the fault of the USSR, but of the doctrines of NATO countries, where, due to air superiority, air defenses are not needed at all, with the exception of long-range stationary stations, to protect all kinds of enterprises
The only solution to the problem that I see is a major reduction in the necessary rebirth points for aircraft with exclusively anti-aircraft weapons, so that you can take a conditional f16 for 150-200 points.
This is exactly the issue, and exactly the reason why Pantsir should’ve never been added in the first place; it should’ve been Tor instead.
Pantsir would be more useful as an AI SPAA in big air-only maps, due to its range. In ground battles, it will always far surpass whatever the West can field specifically because of the doctrinal differences you mentioned. The introduction of the Pantsir is what caused longer and longer ranged anti-ground weapon systems to be added, and essentially manifest in a cascade effect where now ground players have to deal with satellite guided bombs dropped from far enough away that they couldn’t hope to do anything about it.
Had Pantsir not been introduced, these weapons would not have been needed as a “counter” for Pantsir, and so planes would still be using weapons that require them to get in range of opposing SPAA, and thus be vulnerable to being shot down. It wouldn’t entirely fix a CAS problem, but it would be a significant step in mitigating it.
However, because the Pantsir was added, we are in a state of “no going back now” and have to live with it.
There is nothing in Pantsir that prevents it from being added. The Pantsir can be easily beaten on any plane, especially considering that most often people with not the highest intelligence sit on them, with a bottle of beer in their hand. In some situations, the “Thor” is even better, due to missiles with greater overload. The conditional Chinese HQ-17 will cover the sky within a radius of up to 15 kilometers, with good radar, low-smoke missiles with a huge overload.
The range is the issue. I specifically mentioned that. Before Pantsir, it was looking as if every SPAA at top tier would be perfectly “balanced” by stretching out to 10km at maximum. Tor is/was also limited to 10km.
Pantsir is the only SPAA that has a 15km range, that I can recall. In that sense it is in a league of its own.
Think of it this way. It’s like if the top tier tanks were still the IS-2 and King Tiger and then suddenly someone rocks up with a Maus, and no one else can produce an equal to it. It doesn’t matter that there are heavy tanks at the same BR as the Maus, none have the all around protection and survivability of the Maus and that makes it an extremely difficult thing to balance.
In this analogy, because of the Maus, we ended up with the HEATFS tanks at 7.3+. Likewise, because of the Pantsir, we ended up with satellite guided glide bombs.
Nothing is preventing it except for a sense of game balance, which clearly was not the objective when they added it. If nothing can match a thing that was added, it was a bad decision to add it in the first place.
The idea was really not the best, but the players in the USSR at that time were no longer just screaming, howling for Pantsir for the USSR, because of the weakness of 2S6. The developers could not miss such a hypomobile
They added the TOR to china and could just copy it to USSR like they do with nato vehicles ( see Leopard for everyone or F-4 Phantoms ). And in addition to the Pantsir they nerfed the Nato AA-Missles to the gorund. Video of TheEuropeanCanadian shows how butchered the nato missles are compared to russian ones.
So the Statcard range isnt even realistic. You can get hit from a Pantsir at 16km but you outmanoeuvre the VT-1 at around 9km
At top tier for example(all I play), a well reduced loadout of 2 aim120 and 2 aim9m for a spawn cost of 300sp.
My f15c spawning with a full A2A loadout costs barely any different from bringing some ground attack munitions with it. A- I am bad at CAS(not much better at CAP lol), but even if I wasn’t I still never bring it. I prefer planes for air and tanks for ground. I’m not a fan of CAS so I refuse to add to it. Same reason I don’t play helis, at all.
This would give us better options to fight CAS. Remedy the issue of CAS being able to engage the way they do, and the massive drop in capabilities between pantsir and all the rest.
Pantsirs are the STRV’s and Leo2a7’s of AA.
CAS is still better, but it starts putting things to parity.
In this example Russia could still have the same option, but it would cost more. Like 500, to our 300 or 350. Since they have the most viable AA in the game, but wouldn’t pigeonhole them into only using ground while we have air to deal with air.
It would also remedy the doctrinal differences between NATO and others and why we don’t have these assets like Russia and China do.