Strela lock range

I’ve had games where strelas have been locking me from 4km and even from 5km away while being only 10.3. Is it intended for them to lock helis from over 4km away when I can’t even lock other helis barely 2km away with stingers??? Getting locks against an IR missile without any countermeasures is pretty crazy especially in a chopper in 11.0 BR

https://warthunder.com/en/tournament/replay/236990939571433712
Around the 12:40 mark

Screw helicopters users lol goddamn pest ruins the gameplay of ground vehicles, not like tanks can dodge agm to prevent death. Strela should go down to 9.3 to reduce CAS spam at lower br

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The Strela ingame uses missiles with a Photo-contrast mode, which allows them to lock onto an image of the aircraft more or less, rather than the heat produced by an aircraft.
Irl it required clear weather and backgrounds, but ingame it will maintain a lock through trees, clouds, and dusk settings.

Oh and did I mention the Strela can’t lock onto flares at all when it locks a plane with photo contrast? How lovely! (You can’t out pull it either so good luck with that). Gaijin really needs to adjust this…

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Optical lock. A good thing too, stingers are worthless against helicopters in this game if the person it simply stays at stand-off.

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This should be fixed at some point in the future.

In fact the Stinger should be entirely overhauled, once all three reports are actioned. (I am currently working on one relating to the warhead function / delay fuse, and armor penetration prior to detonation)

POST Seeker (Photo)Contrast lock on mechanic.
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/LbD7XSmoaAJc

Increase maneuverability to 20~22G
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/yUohrEMuQLna

Lock on range extended to 6.5km
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/CrgLh51VkpQZ

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Now im gonna play helicopters even more.

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What are heli players supposed to do?

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Not play the game. lol

Can we compare Strela to TY90? Cause there are a couple of proposals for TY90 SPAA and Z9W is still 10.0 with next to no CAS capability. If Yitian Ty90 SPAA gets added, should it be 10.0 or 10.3?

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idk

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Strela is broken, if you’re in an 11.0 heli just don’t get that close…

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Lobbing hellfires from over 7kms away takes over 20 seconds to reach and by then the target would most likely would have moved or died already.

Meanwhile 10.0 heli with 3km missiles…

Ingame Stingers lock modern helis at ranges below 2km. Totally ignoring that Ozelot system has optical/thermal lock + data link.

Just Strela is able to kill everything. Totally lock down air space. BR is far too low. Its the Pantsir of 10+/- BR range.

Russians need that. You can’t play anything vs Stela with that mad ingame photo contrast mode (which didn’t work well irl, ingame it locks through vegetation even). I also noticed that Strela seems to ignore large flares you deploy as countermeasure. Allied air forces in War Thunder are totally hardcountered by ru anti air systems. You cant use your planes.

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Strela is at a fine BR you just have to adapt to it. Its not that hard to counter if you know what your doing.

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Ofc we adapt. We don’t spawn air stuff anymore. Thats pretty obvious when you play higher tiers. Sky is pretty much empty for the other team. Western helis and jets rarely spawn, while the sky is full of Migs, Su’s, Mi’s and Ka’s.

I beg to differ about the skys being clear of western jets. But It might just be me.

Only aircraft the can pretty much counter it is anything with fire and forget like mavericks. Any chopper that requires a lase has to sit there out in the open until the atgm hits while the strela only needs a couple of seconds for the lock then shoots and scoots behind a building or a rock. Rolands which are on the same BR on the other hand need line of sight.

Depends on weather and if there is anything like a mountain in the background. Both of them can mess with its lock.

What? I run mine in my 12.7 lineup, any plane that comes within range is dead lol, far easier than pantsir since everyone at that br plays to counter those.