If you’re locking with radar, you should have a rough read. Once you follow the attitude and flightpath of the plane you should have a better ability to hit. It’s not automatic, and it really only works head-on with supersonics, but it’s definitely doable.
Also, flares barely work against most SHORAD missiles in game, so the flares really only work well against early/mid-game rear-aspect only missiles fired from other planes.
I don’t panic myself, but I spend 3 or 4 missiles on LGB’s, after having to toss my first missile I fired at the plane. By the time I reacquire, the plane is usually gone, or in a difficult to intercept attitude/elevation.
You shouldn’t ever go 180° to any SAM, you should be going as close to 90° relative to it as possible. People keep misplaying against it, sometimes it is due to air spawn but most of the time it’s players misunderstanding how to counter these vehicles.
I brought it up just how much range and speed the missile has, but what you said is also very much hit or miss I know because that’s what I used to do to counter Pantsirs. What I do now is I dive so low the terrain blocks LOS and either gun them down before they can react or do very quickly pop out, drop my dookie and dive again
Oh no, I have seen people panic for sure. I was just saying for someone who undertakes the effort to stay alive it becomes a “oh great let me intercept all this ordnance and then probably not be able to hit the little shit who dropped it”.
Playing whackamole with Apaches and Hellfires is top-tier entertainment, and that has an ounce of panic, admittedly.
At some point the Hellfire seems to be going away from you (when it does it’s little guidance loop into you), so you have the temptation to save missiles and assume you aren’t being targeted only to turn into a pinata two seconds later, lmao.