Is the cooling system gonna have an effect in game on performance?
The better the cooling the better seeker is at locking cooler targets. So better cooling better all aspect
Nope.
Yes.
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When was the P4 introduced in service? Was it used by the US army or just export?
Yes, it was used by a number of USAF / Reserve / ANG aircraft, post Vietnam, as they aged out of frontline service and never received the needed modification to fit the new plugs the AIM-9L required.
The other reason was to use up older stocks, since the AIM-9( -B/ -E/ -J) & AIM-9L do not share a motor, and so a cheap refactor of the seeker, would give 80% the capability for a fraction of the cost, and could be made quickly while AIM-9L stocks came up to the required level, which is partially why the -P5 also exists.
It also suited those airframes that were left with the Postwar AIM-9B/ -9E / -9J , compatible wiring. This incudes the USAF’s F-4s, F-5E F-105, A-7D and other airframes of around the same vintage, that used the USAF series of Sidewinders.
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This graph is beyond my comprehension, what’s it trying to show me?
what wavelengths each seeker can detect at a given power?
Idk something like that
It’s the relationship between the apparent energy(fixed operating voltage for a photovoltaic cell, due to the chemistry for a given wavelength, and temperature) across a detector (Y-Axis) when exposed to a given Wavelength of light (X-Axis).
This varies with the temperature of the Detector, which is measured in Kelvin(similar to the Celsius Scale, but starts from absolute zero (~ -273C), not the freezing point of pure water ) so 300K is ~26 degrees C (so should be basically representative of performance at lab standard conditions of 25C, 1 bar )
The relevant materials to the discussion are InSb ( Indium antimonide) , and PbS (Lead Sulfide), which are the Detector materials in the ALASCA, and Rear-Aspect Seekers respectively.
Though The use of a Peltier Cooler complicates things since its performance is ultimately dependent on the Supplied Voltage to sustain cooling and since with missiles you don’t really need that long to get it to do its job, there is less of a focus on MTBF (reliability) stats, so they can run them much more aggressively than in other applications.
And so would be hard to work backwards to find the operating temperature, without schematics in comparison to a Cryogenic gas cooled system that uses CO2, (Carbon Dioxide [AIM-9F]) N (Nitrogen[USN Sidewinders]), or Ar (Argon[AIM-9L / -9M]) as the operating fluid.
This is definitely far more in depth than what I’m used to trying to understand, but I’m curious if you are able to make a good guess as to where the Aim-9P-4 might fall in terms of seekerhead prefromance in game?
Slightly worse than the AIM-9Ls seeker (80~90% of the -9Ls All-Aspect range), but the rest of the Missile body is basically an AIM-9J (with a smokeless motor, if they add it) so 22Gs of performance, which is what lets it down in comparison.
Its a serviceable half step, between the -9J or -9P-3, and AIM-9L. And there are a number of airframes in the 10.0~11.7 BR range that could receive them, considering the imminent arrival of the Fox-3 meta and subsequent BR compression as downward pressure appears on the 12.0~12.3 airframes.
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Interesting, and thank you for the info! Ofc we’ll have to see how well gajjin actually models it, but if so then it’s definitely a bit more useful than the base 9P but still a far cry from being an op missile. I’m making the guess that the F-5E will end up at 11.0 so it can go with the Type 90’s for now and provide CAS
Ya’ll can drop the entire bit about trying to say they are different, its a 9L seeker in game, everything about it seeker wise is identical bar the guidance start.
The P4 is a P with a 9L seeker full stop, in game.
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Good to know!
All that is - grounds for a report. Shouldn’t full stop the discussion when a discrepancy is discovered, rather the opposite.
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The point is there supposed to be different
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The initial question was this
And this
I have no qualms with speaking of if the ongoing conversation is valid or not in the case of IRL, but the IRL capabilities were not the question in this case.
The issue here is that a number of people drew from IRL data to state that the seekers are indeed different, which is currently false.
IRL these statements are true, but in WT they currently are not.
The AIM9P4 in the game does not appear to use a reduced-smoke rocket moto.
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Anyone know what kind of AIM-9 this is?
Am i blind? i do not see any