The LMUR (on Mi-28NM ) and Kh-38 (on Su-30 / Su-34) missiles require “almost no skill” for “massive results”.
They are “fire-and-forget”, so you don’t have to maintain laser guidance or expose yourself.
You can fire them safely from “12–15 km away”, far beyond the range of most SPAA or IR systems.
→ This completely removes the intended “risk vs reward” balance in helicopter and CAS gameplay. The MI28NM problem
“You just go up, fire 8 LMURs, get 8 kills, land again. No risk, no counterplay.”
Unreal Damage and Overkill Potential
Both LMUR and especially Kh-38 hit like a truck.
A single LMUR can kill almost any MBT, even those with ERA or composite armor.
The top-attack flight path hits the weakest part of any tank – the roof.
The Kh-38 carries a massive 250 kg warhead, capable of destroying vehicles even with near-misses.
“The Kh-38ML’s blast and fragmentation radius make it capable of destroying most ground vehicles even without a direct hit.”
“3. Unfair Asymmetry in Top Tier”
Right now, Russia has exclusive access to these advanced “fire-and-forget” ATGMs.
NATO equivalents like JAGM, PARS 3, or Spike are either missing or modeled without top-attack or autonomous guidance.
→ This creates a clear imbalance between nations, where one side can strike from total safety while the other cannot respond equally.
Players consistently report that Ground RB matches end within minutes once a Mi-28NM or Su-30 starts spamming LMURs or Kh-38s.
All tactical elements – flanking, teamwork, positioning – become pointless once long-range missile spam clears the map.
“5. Countermeasures Are Practically Useless”
Even advanced SPAAs like the “Claws, Aster-30, or IRIS-T SLM” struggle to counter them.
LMURs often fly low or lofted, making them hard to detect or intercept.
The helicopter can immediately retreat behind cover after launch.
LMUR and Kh-38 are overtuned, effortless to use, and they completely destroy top-tier gameplay balance.
There’s little counterplay, no meaningful risk for the user, and no equivalent tools for other nations.
Possible fixes:
Increase BR of LMUR/KH-38 carriers,
Limit missile count per sortie,
Add realistic lock/guidance limits or better countermeasures for all nations.
Player sentiment
“Anyone who doesn’t know what these are – they’re basically 8 guaranteed kills.”
“He just went up, launched all his missiles, landed again. No effort, no skill.”
“LMURs are cracked. One launch, 80% kill chance.”
— from the War Thunder and Reddit community discussions.
My Kh 38s are getting intercepted by SPAA nearly every game now, you might want to get new spaa then. Mamba is the best one to intercept them,SAMP/T aswell. SkySabre too,or IRIS-T. Basically nearly all of the new SPAA. You have JAGMRs where the Apache have 16 of em,which is same issue like LMUR. Basically have SPAA intercept them and you are fine, or yknow, use smoke,cover and move.
Neither solution would solve the problem, the problem stems from HOW easy it is too actually spawn these in a single match and re-arm afterwards.
What they need to do is make FnF munitions simple 2x there current SP cost and in the case of LMUR/JGAM/SPIKES/PARS is REMOVE THE ABILITY to re-arm at the helipad they spawned at. we have 2 heli pads so if they want to re-arm they have to fly back to the further helipad and come back to re-arm, they also need to introduce a ticket bleed system for “over re-arming” so everyone gets 1/2 free re-arms but afterwards you should be punished for simply sitting at a helipad abusing game mechanics with zero skill involved.
I’m sorry but having them sit in mulipath zones where top tier SAMs can do F’all and gaijin know this for a fact because they dont model the rotatory blade cross section properly when in reality these SHOULD have the largest radar signature in the game, this would at least solve there invulnerability to ARH SAMs when hugging the ground.
FnF munitions have imo broke the game to a point they HAD to power creep other systems and its snowballed from there really.
When you’ve just ground up the entire tank tech tree, the plane tech tree, plus the helicopter tech tree, not to mention all the modules—in short, a good thousand hours—it’s a good thing you finally have weaponry that delivers good results and is well-implemented.
And if youve done it with other nations then you can get bent basically? I got russian, german, american, japanese and swedish ground, air and heli TTs cleared.
Would you then say that because ive done germany i dont deserve a well implemented weaponry?
The problem lies in the fact that LMUR on Mi28NM is fundamentally different in its performance compared to stuff like PARS3LRs or JAGMS. While PARS3s and JAGMs are HEAT meaning that the HEAT jet has to deliver the killing blow, the LMURs are SAPHE meaning that they kill not purely by penetration but rather by overpressure.
This would be fine, hell probably would be much worse than PARS3LRs and JAGMs if they had the same flight path as one another.
They dont, PARS3s and JAGMs all strike down at an angle of anywhere between like 20-45degrees (by the eye) while the LMURs strike from super steep angle. This means that while PARS3s and JAGMs tend to hit front armor, side armor, etc. with lot more protection, the LMURs generally hit the rooftop, which is least protected and results in a one hit kill like 9/10 times.
Thats the main difference between it and every other missile ingame, the biggest factor why LMURs are so strong. If they had the same strike path of like 30-45 degree angling then id imagine the LMUR wouldnt be so reliable at getting kills against more up-armored MBTs.
*Plus add to it the fact that the Mi28NM is effectively immune to IR SAMs if you pull the nose down a bit as the LDIRCM sensor on the bottom back goes through the helicopter fuselage and somehow affects the missiles coming from above the helicopter despite the fact that thats not how it should work, on top of being a forcefield.
And as for Su30/34, the Kh38s are still THE best AGM missile in the entire game bar none. Speed and warhead alone make it incomparable to anything else ingame. Mavericks are slow and unreliable even with 50kg TNT SAPHE warhead. The closest thing to Kh38s in reliability is funnily enough Kh29s and those can be smoked as they lack IOG.
Russian CAS is very much carrying the russian team WR, pre-LMUR the russian top tier WR dropped down to like 40-something % and now it jolted up to like 56%. Thats not because better players came in to hold the winrate up, its because the LMUR is genuinely just so oppressive on a platform thats immune to one of its biggest threats being the SLM.
Ha! Not at all right now, they nerfed the IR lock range on the IRIS-T SL from 10km to 4km… to reduce switching targets? They are also incapable of giving it proper datalink. There are like total of 20 bug reports open on the IRIS-T SLM, some accepted, some ignored, both will end up unimplemented…
Breaking news, we got a live image from the inside of the WarThunder Developer HQ, come take a look for yourself
What an astonishing image, it looks as if they’re solving some kind of puzzle.
