I have been sat on the arse of a Su-39 in the harrier Gr7 before, forced to use guns because even at 1km. The Aim-9M refused to lock and I kept getting warning saying IRCM preventing lock or whatever the message is.
In the dev blog for the KA-50 when it came out, it said it was even supposed to have thermals. I was so happy, especially since it’s my fav helicopter IRL
As a LAV-AD enjoyer I usually need 1 Stinger per air kill, but for SU-25 I always double tap to be sure. I have some wild anecdotes about a SU-39 in particular taking like 5 Stingers to down.
I seen it be played plenty, since it’s overall better rocket sender than Mi-24/35’s, NSPU would give it Mi-35M sights with nice zoom, thermals and lock, giving it also Ataka’s.
Basically a more maneuvrable Mi-35M without anti air capabilities in form of anti air rockets, without turret lock, having fixed cannon instead.