Finally unlocked the engine modification for my F-15C Golden Eagle and had much better results at getting some more consistent kills at high alt with the AIM-120Ds.
It’s insane how much difference it makes when every slight bit of speed and performance on the jet platform makes up for an AMRAAM’s chance at hitting pot gold.
If the Eurofighters or Rafale (hypothetically) had AIM-120Ds, God help us all.
poor super hornet players
Just wait until both gets meteors and Rafale also recieves MICA NG, it would be nightmare :)
If rafale had aim120D it would just be a worse eurofighter and nowhere near as good as it is currently
No, IIRC Meteor has control surface with lower area then AMRAAM, it also has no TVC so it should turn worse then an AMRAAM (If I am not mistaken this was the reason due to which 120C/D have worse maneuverability then 120D). Ramjet will help it get more range without losing much speed. I don’t think extreme range really does not matter in game currently. It is only going to allow launches at 70km+ range without having to worry that it would lose energy
At the end, once it enters pitbull range, it would be still be notchable
Also considering mid game usually becomes WVR where maneuverability would matter more, it would also struggle like AMRAAM
However next Gen IR on Eurofighter would be something to watch out for
Pretty sure that has already been disproved here, but would have to check
I would still expect meteor to maneuver worse than amraam just based off being heavier.
Like how r-67-1 maneuvers worse than standard r-77 because it’s heavier
Isn’t this a faulty assumption that the Meteor would be modeled as an AIM-120 variant and not its own new missile? AAM-4 is heavier than both AIM-120D and Meteor in-game yet is not modeled as being worse at maneuvering than the AIM-120s.
R-77-1 being a heavier version of R-77 makes sense.
AIM-120D being a heavier version of AIM-120A makes sense.
Meteor being a heavier version of AIM-120 doesn’t make any sense to me.
Honestly, not sure this is how it works. AMRAAM is a special case where it’s doomed by a document that stated it has 15 degree fin AoA.
That means so long as the Meteor is modeled with fairly standard “default” values, like the original AIM-120s, it can automatically outperform it from the start.
Different design on the Meteor, so I also sincerely expect a different, and remade, performance compared to the amraam.
multipath is already ingame that excuse doesnt run
meteor is a clean slate design, r-77-1 is an upgrade to an existing missile. i think its a bit of eh comparison personally
Yeah uh, why is a gamble mechanic relevant here?
Multipath just puts you at a disadvantage…
it allows for braindead gameplay, and it rewards it more often than not. sure its a gamble, a gamble with overly good odds
arb isnt a 1v1, multipath is bad in most 1v1 scenarios but in 16v16 it just allows people to play like crap and survive when they shouldnt
multipath is ez to do, but also easy to counter.
High missile counts promote stuff like MCM, which is just as easy to do yet significantly more devastating and annoying/hard to counter
you dont counter multipath though, you fly over them and hope your missiles connect or just try to close the gap(again dubious in 16v16) to get in range for a fox 2.
Meteor control surfaces are pretty much identical (compared to the rest of its body) to the AIM-120B’s fins, it’s only the clipped wing design for the F-35 that makes it appear smaller.
It also turns differently from most MRAMS. Over distance it doesn’t turn like AMRAAM/most missiles do currently, it turns more like a plane, to conserve energy and when it’s about to impact then it turns like “normal” to use as much overload as possible to ensure a hit. (Though to keep it simple, its turning performance is likely in between AIM-120B and C-5, so nothing crazy or unexpected)
The Meteor is limited to battery if I had to guess. 200 km is widely stated but it could easily do an additional ~50 km unpowered (it doesn’t have infinite fuel after all, even if it flew on an “endurance” setting it’ll run out eventually), so expect its stat card ingame to state between 200-250 km maximum range
It also shares ARH seeker based on the AD4A (MICA EM), so “notchable”, yes, but then you remember Eurofighter Captor E exists to maintain lock, something the Rafale can’t really do (and still, the MICA is difficult to evade at range).
Obviously anyone using the Meteor WVR is… special lol. It would be better/preferable to just use AIM-120B or MICA EM or any one of the busted IIR missiles.
EDIT: about its turn performance, there will probably be a massive guidance delay compared to AMRAAM to simulate that it in fact cannot turn on a dime off the rail
Does maintaining a lock even do anything once missile goes into pitbull?
Whenever I fire AMRAAM and keep lock on the target under 19km and the player starts notching, my missile gets notched and keeping a lock does nothing, however 120D does sometime relock
This is definetly the core thing to remember here. Meteor isnt great at WVR because it entered service more than a decade after missiles designed to dominate WVR
