As you said, SAMs made to intercept targets 200km away aren’t the best suited for the meta. The best SAMs for the game are those specialised on intercepting targets from Point Blank ranges to up to 20 km.
My favourite part is that they also have guns; ideal to assassinate C*Ssers who fly past the battlefield area hugging the trees too close for SAMs to be able to engage!
It’s still better to be able to fire at an enemy as long as you see it for 1 second and having the missile go after them, compared to having to be locked on them for 10 seconds and losing lock the very second you lose line of sight.
9.3 IR short-range FnFs not being ideal doesn’t mean advanced 12.0 systems wouldn’t fare much better!
Tbh SPAA will always be at the disadvantage, i just dont feel the disadvantage should be as absurd as it is currently.
SPAA
limited on where it can be
Jet knows where you are for the most part thanks to advanced RWR
cant dictate the engagement (you have to fight on the jets terms)
But CAS shouldnt just be out ranging SPAA to the ridiculous extent it currently is. The Pantsir-S1 is the best SPAA in the game, and it still isnt enough to combat the CAS horde. Its best feature is the fact it can intercept munitions.
Edit: to really hammer that point home for anyone who doesnt play russia. The pantsir is THE BEST AA, and its still not good enough against the heavy hitters of top tier. Let that one sink in.
Edit 2: another big disadvantage of SPAA vs Jets i forgot to list. The Jet not only knows roughly where you are, he knows exactly WHAT you are. As an SPAA, you really dont know what youre facing until you see it in the kill feed, or manually ID it.
I am loving China so much so far… so having top end SAMs, some of them with guns on top of that, would be ideal.
I just wish Gaijin would give Chinese MBTs their damn spall liners once and for all at last, like, bro, it’s been over a year since they were reported already.
And also fix the armor effectiveness and physical sizes on the VT-4A1 and ZTZ/WZs.