Hi, so I’m not entirely sure if this topic has been talked about yet, but I’d like to start.
Gaijin in the major updates of 2025 added new Top-Tier Sam systems, either in the AiO form, or the Multi-Vehicle form. Now most of these Anti-Air systems are usually pretty alright with few issues, with a couple that can’t be ignored. To start, with the IR Sams, which include (Claws/Nasams, IRIS-T, CS/SA5, Elde 98 and Spyder). Now against planes they have little issue (except the CS/SA5 which has gotten a change I’ll touch later), except against these new LDIRCM helicopters they added with the introduction of the new Sams. The main problem is the fact that these LDIRCM helicopters are FULLY immune to these missiles, which shouldn’t be the case as all of these missiles feature 1 or 2 things in common (except python 5) which is IOG + DL. As it stands in game they currently, if given the proper opportunity will only ever use IOG + DL when the target is usually further then 10km, or target is constantly pre-flaring, otherwise they will ALWAYS lock the target with their own seeker while never taking input from either IOG or DL while tracking in IR mode. Against these Helicopters the issue is very noticeable because the missile will get close, and fly away in a random direction thanks to its LDIRCM, if the IOG and DL issue was fixed you would be forced to get below the radar, either use terrain or just hide to then allow the LDIRCM to have affect. (Following along? Hopefully its not too confusing.) The CS/SA5 (before Line of Contact went live) had an issue of its own, and that was it almost NEVER used its own seeker to lock a target because it would stay in IOG + DL unless something happened with the radar lock. Now this issue was both good and bad for a few reasons, it was good because against these LDIRCM helicopters, it had almost no issue connecting with the target because its seeker never turned on, so it was never affected by the dazzler, however it was bad because at longer range targets if you had fired a missile, then they got behind cover, started flaring, or firing their own munitions it would go for the first thing it saw, which usually was never the plane. With the Line of Contact update it changed how it worked, previously the missile would slave to the radar (just like the more modern IR missiles on higher tier jets would), well that’s not the case anymore, now the missile has some sort of HMD(?) to the cursor and will no longer slave to the radar, instead if you fired with DL (because the missile can’t get a lock of its own), it would sort of follow the cursor kind of like how a SACLOS missile (ItO, Tor, or Pantsir) would, it seems all fine until you realize, the missile itself in this mode isn’t very responsive to any inputs you may want to add, or if you want the missile to lock the target you would first, have to point your cursor at the target and hope it locks, which in the worst case it wouldn’t lock the right target, but something else randomly. (Ok that’s enough rambling about the CS/SA5 and the IR missile Sams). Now with these new ARH Sams, they have very little issue hitting planes or helicopters (as long as they don’t chaff while moving slightly), their biggest weakness it the very absurd multipathing height which makes it very difficult to shoot down planes, helicopters and EVEN droves on relatively flat maps. These systems have a lot less issues then the IR ones as these use very similar or the exact same code as Air to Air launched Fox 3s, so they will reliably enter IOG + DL when needed. The main issue I’ve personally noticed with these is against drones and helicopters. Against drones the radar itself would drop the lock and the missile would no longer track, or if the radar didn’t lose lock but instead started ghosting the missile would follow the radar target, and get NEAR the drone, and do 1 of 2 things, either miss entirely, or blow up near the drone cause either no damage, or little damage. Now against helicopters the missiles have a very similar issue as I explained with drones, except this time they have chaff, now because of how helicopters don’t have a proper RCS modeled (their blades should have a HUGE radar return) if they fly slow and drop some chaff 9 times out of 10 the missile will bite and track the chaff.
Gaijin has advertised these as “advanced” but doesn’t put in the proper work to make them ACTUALLY advanced, and I hopefully would like to achieve something with this post by hopefully getting the word out and get more reports rolling in for some fixes. I do want to add some notes and say I actively play Sams, helicopters AND planes all respectively (and even the helicopters competitively) and find these LDIRCM helicopters to be the most busted out of all three. I hope something might get done in the future, and remember, some of this is opinion, other is a broken game feature.