I have now used the AIM-7F and AIM-7M on four aircraft and the Soviet high-tier radar missiles on seven. I used the AIM-7F on the F-4EJ Kai for quite a while before I took a break earlier this year, and had great success with it. I even landed a few kills with them on the F-16AJ. They were at least comparable to most Soviet missiles, although obviously I vastly preferred the R-27ER. Now I’ve come back from my break and I can categorize my experiences like this.
This has been my experience on the F-16AJ, F-4EJ Kai, F-15J, and F-4S, with both the 7M and 7F. What exactly has happened? What am I supposed to do about this? Half of the missile load on the current topmost-tier Japanese jet is functionally deadweight unless you get a picture-perfect head-on. How is this acceptable? I don’t accept Soviet bias as an answer as these things were at least functional within the last twelve months, and I see people pretty consistently get kills with them. What am I doing wrong? Are they simply spamming every missile they have on them?
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The way SARH missiles work is by recieving a signal from the radars CW illumination, which it sends out over a relatively large area. If there are other objects that give off radar feedback (Chaff, other players, AI etc.) in said area, the radar might illuminate the wrong target which gives off a stronger radar signature, which causes the missile to guide itself to a target that isn’t actually locked by your radar. All missiles regardless of nation experience this kind of behavior. I haven’t expierenced it on the Aim-7’s myself but one reason why the R-27’s might be more resistant to this could be the datalink function to correct it’s flightpath once the correct target is illuminated again