I just made this MICA range chart from sea level to 12km altitude.
Launch speed is 300 m/s TAS for all altitudes.
Battery lasts 130 seconds, here all missiles stalled before battery died.
M number to the right is max mach speed reached.
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this is interesting since while aero range overall is superior to the sparrow, sea level max range is 28% less than the sparrow before stall which shows the difference long burn sustaining motors can make at low altitude
Could you do one with 55 seconds battery time? Devs often go with battery time of the last gen missile. In the case of the MICA EM, they’ll look at Super 530D which has a maximum battery time of 55 seconds.
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This isn’t going to be pretty.
Since the MICA loft higth, time on target is a lot worse than a 530D for the same distance engagement.
A 55sec battery time probably means a 50km max range even at hight altitude
Low alt is high drag and long burn motors reduce base drag by a lot yeah
MICA doesn’t loft as high as R-77 or AIM-54 does as video shows, so hopefully not. On Razbam’s Super 530D white paper where they justify the performance of the missile, they indicate it has a more modest loft profile designed to increase average speed of the missile during the whole flight rather than increasing the range.
So I’m gonna take a wager that the MICA is supposed to have a modest loft trajectory that increases endgame speed.
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Are you sure the R77 loft, i tried to find info on this but cound’t manage to find a primary source that said that the R77 indeed lofted.
If it didn’t loft that could explain the limited range of 80/100km while the missile is bigger than an Amraam
I apologize, I meant R-77-1. There’s a video of it lofting on the R-77 thread
bigger doesnt necessarily mean more range (tho it helps) R-77 is basicly the same size as the AIM-7M, its actually a little smaller, and the AMRAAM according to one publicly available document matches/exceeds the AIM-7M range/engagement envelop noramlly, and exceeds its range when using command inertial nav. The R-77 also likely has a lot of trouble when it gets slow, seeing as its fins act as airbrakes between ~M0.8-1.3
That chart you’re thinking of has nothing to do with the AIM-120 or AIM-7Fs kinetics. It only compares what’s possible in terms of guidance.
We all understand and know that the AIM-7Ms kinetic range vastly outranges the semi-active guidance range which is determined by the seeker. Only thing one could reasonably conclude from this is that it is possible to fire the AIM-120 further than the range the AIM-7M can be fired from, even if it is a range it’ll never reach.
The AIM-120 or any fox 3s in general can be fired from 1,000km away, doesn’t mean it’ll ever get there kinematically. The chart is just to demonstrate the fox 3 capability.
Super 530D has been changed to 60s guidance time some time ago.
Here it is with 60s of battery :
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I will start working on implementing lofting next.
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Well good to see low altitude performances are kept. But still i personnally believe they will improve battery time of the missile like up to something like 80 seconds or something
Unfortunately unless we have sources on MICA missile’s battery time, they’ll fall back on Super 530D’s values which are listed in this document:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/955829235493273680/1146958939771125820/55secs.jpg
Also, doctrine dictated that the MICA missile be used against maneuvering fighters in BVR as those were the real threats for France which were not close to Soviet bombers, whereas AIM-120 and R-77 also had to take into account tankers/bombers, so at ranges beyond 60 seconds, it would probably not have enough maneuverability to take on fighters.
Also, the MICA missile travels a bit over 60km with 60 seconds of battery as Mess showed, and MBDA lists 60km range for the MICA missile. Other sources state 80km which might be head-on launch range, all of which lines up with the new simulation here it seems.
The missile also has a maximum speed of Mach 4.5. AIM-7F and other missiles have their maximum speed modeled. In the case of AIM-7F it is limited to Mach 4.3 in-game.
Sources state max speed of Mach 4.5 for MICA missiles. Some of the speed here shows it going above Mach 4.5.
Loft should allow it to trade some excess speed for range however.
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Well as you stated US kind of limits France adds but also defines limitation for other things so considering they won’t have data on MICA but on other Fox 3 they may use a slightly reduced AMRAAM battery time instead of a Fox 1 battery duration
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So is the MICA not a low-smoke motor? There seems to be quite a visible plume of smoke:
Compare that to ASRAAM with hardly any smoke visible:
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Well you cannot avoid some smoke when your motor thrust make you go MACH 4 and able to burn for 6 seconds but nevr really heard that MICA was claimed to have low smoke motor. Plus in the vids altitudes seems to be different so this could be due to condensation instead of being real smoke.
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Funny enough, MBDA does advertise MICA as low smoke, but obviously theres quite a bit of smoke unlike the asraam, but the ranges it’s meant to operate + its low burn time means it’s of little benefit to have it be truly low smoke.