IRL, even F-14 (which is a much older aircraft) can fire the AIM-54 in IRST track mode.
So I would be quite surprised if Su-27SM and MiG-29SMT didn’t have the same capability.
Especially since it would be quite trivial to implement. As an ARH missile basically only needs azimuth, elevation and target closure to lock onto a specific target, and all of that can be provided in IRST track mode. (F-14 can fire AIM-54 with IRST track without even providing a closure rate)
It would make the IRST on some planes way more useful as well, right now it can only be used for finding other people without pinging them and the occasional long range IR shot. Would definitely diversify top tier if you only have 16km warning rather than however far they fired from.
I’m not exactly a radar expert so call me out here but wouldn’t that be significantly worse than a regular ACM mode due to the Crusaders slow(ish) radar refresh and acquisition?
Airframes of Su-25 and Su-25K are already over-ranked at 10.3 BR, because of their capability to carry R-60M missiles.
Even at 10.3 BR of Air RB, you never get to the enemy bases first, you can hardly defend yourself with those two very short-ranged and flair-hungry missiles, and if anyone gets in your tail - you might as well eject.
I think Su-39 with radar-guided missiles at a higher BR (even as high as 13.7 BR), would fair better then Su-25SM3 at 12.3 BR, or even Su-25T and Su-25BM at 11.3/11.7 BR of Air RB.
yes, this is very good now and to know if the gaijin will implement it, as I have already lost hope in it, I just see it becoming more obsolete, as it cannot use all of its weaponry
they most certainly can shoot radar missiles from IRST as the mig29A can do that - its something i was gonna report soon after i finish some other stuff. mig29A Avionics manual (page 71 section 2.5.3 heading 15) states the IRST will automatically hand off track to radar as the primary system when r27R is qued up then the missile can be immediately fired. So you should indeed be able to que up and shoot a radar missile directly from a IRST lock, as the system will instantly switch to radar to guide it.
Additionally IRST locks should transition to radar locks automatically if within laser rangefinder range if IRST loses track(i think thats <6km from memory but could be 10, havent read it in a while) - either by exceeding gimbal limit or losing track by interference such as clouds. This would stop the IRST dropping locks mid combat by people constantly preflaring as happens quite often, or while flying through clouds - both situations being very frustrating in game. The system can also do this automatic switching outside of rangefinder range but a specific mode has to be selected i believe, but adding that long range functionality probs woudl do a bit more harm then good in warthunder rn as it would just give any long range stealthy IRST locks away when u wouldnt want to spook the bandit with a STT radar warning in the first place.
As far as sending fox3’s off the rail active from launch with IRST i imagine you could do it too but naturally the mig manual only covers fox1’s since they hadnt developed the r77’s yet.
On the topic of the 39 receiving its actual weapons tho, i think its absolutely high time it got its r77’s(and r27’s). Particularly since nato TT’s received their full armaments for the harriers which fill a similar role to the 39, russia should in turn also get the proper air to air armaments for its jets (including the yak141 too). I’ve always been an advocate for a dynamic loadout based br system which would certainly help here, but without that i think shifting it up in br a step or two would be warranted. Like the mig29 & r73 situation, the su39 is kinda missing the entire point of the aircraft rn so it is pretty rediculous to have it just be a bland copy paste of the 25T as it is rn when it should indeed be a ‘multirole’ capable frog as it was designed to be. For ground rb i dont think it would impact it much at all, as there are fox3’s getting slung around at like 11.7 already by more dangerous carriers and the 39 has the defensive suite to be capable up there too.
