I believe that soviet IRST (infrared search and track) does not work correctly against aircraft with afterburners in frontal aspect.
In test flights, IRST outperforms the R-27ET/R-27T missile (as it should)
but
In battle, the missile can pick up enemies before the IRST can. (Yak-141 IRST outperforms R-27ET, mig-29 9-13 IRST outperforms R-27T)
I believe that this is incorrect behaviors because:
a. it does not correspond to test flight.
b. it does not follow common sense, since if the soviet had a really good missile seeker but a bad IRST, they would just use the missile seeker as an IRST.
c. does not follow common knowledge.
Below I have a video of YaK-141 with R-27ET, the R-27ET can detect an enemy at 9km while the YaK-141 IRST does not detect the enemy even at 4km.
Am I missing something, or is this truly incorrect behavior?
its weird i did testfly the mig29 and the irst is pretty bad even compared the irst of the mig23ml
my guess is the search is to fast and it misses the target
some other thing i noticed the third person radar line on the sides are gone only the top one exists
From what I can tell from searching documentation, the OEPS-29 of the MiG-29 should outrange the detection range of any missile it carries. However it’s possible there is an issue with how the function of the IRST and its functioning is modeled as well. I do not have enough info to say.
