Vympel R-73 'ARCHER' - History, Design, Performance & Discussion

It’s just post-launch seeker gimbal limit
For reference:

Huh, so why on earth was the R-73 limited to 45 degrees before launch in the first place?

@BBCRF @MiG_23M so the mica is 50G yet despite acknowledging report R-73 is still at 40G instead of 60G and it still doesn’t even work properly, spinning half the time. Why does gaijin hate the R-73 this much?

40G is more beneficial anyway, nothing can escape it within the proper WEZ and so maximum overload doesn’t matter here. In fact, it conserves energy too well due to this… Be careful what you ask for.

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B-Balance

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I just wish it had a working autopilot and thrust vectoring, its painful to watch it wobble 8/10 shots costing very valuable speed and spin out of control in close quarter. Its been like 16 months since last years dev server where r-73 was introduced, and it still is not working.

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According to the missile datasheet and reproducible in testing the R-73 will capture the sun from a higher angle than the R-60M. Is this an oversight or realistic?

What tests and what passport?

Sometimes JohnWick might overlook a few things with his datasheet, so its best to double check the github datamine before coming to any conclusions.

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No, I’m sure, I’ll post screenshots today, or clips if I have more time because I need to figure them out first

R-73 minangletosun: 15.0
R-60M minangletosun: 7.5

Comparison to another similar set of missiles using same type of IRCCM

Magic 1 minangletosun: 10.0
Magic 2 minangletosun: 10.0

So yeah, it seems that R-73 is unnecessarily gimped in that respect for whatever reason.

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@BBCRF @MiG_23M

18 months since first test of R-73 in game. 2022 December. Missile is still garbage, and not fixed.

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Hopefully we see something changed in regards to thrust vectoring mechanics with June patch coming up.

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Probably not, 1.5 years and still the same, otherwise how will USA mains in F-16s hold W and win? If the missile autopilot and IRCCM actually worked at close range

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Idk even know if that was thrust vectoring or irccm. It seemed like the missile just lost track for no reason which happens a lot with the r73, even though it can pull in all day it’ll just drop the track for no reason. It happens with other missiles as well but none are as common as r73 in my experience.

The missile was tracking in that clip as you can see, when the missile’s thrust vectoring forced it to do a 180, then it had lost track and went into search mode which is expected because it’s facing the opposite direction of where a target is.

12 years of beta testing

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For what it’s worth, IMO I mostly see R-73’s do that when you launch them when in a climb. The steeper the climb the more likely that they flip into an unrecoverable spin.

R-73 DEV server september R-73 DEV