SA-14 Gremlin / 9K34 Strela-3 MANPADS Pack 1.0.0

SF2 SA-14 Gremlin / 9K34 Strela-3 MANPADS Pack 1.0

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This pack features the SA-14 Gremlin. It is a man-portable, shoulder-fired, low-altitude, 
infrared guided surface-to-air missile system (MANPADS) developed as a response to 
the limited performance of the earlier SA-7 Grail. The missile was largely based on the 
earlier Strela-2 and thus development proceeded rapidly. 

The most significant change over the Strela-2 was the introduction of an all-new infra-red 
homing seeker head. The new seeker worked on FM modulation (con-scan) principle, 
which is less vulnerable to jamming and decoy flares than the earlier AM (spin-scan) seekers,
which were easily fooled by flares and even the most primitive infrared jammers. The 
new seeker also introduced detector element cooling in the form of a pressurized nitrogen 
bottle attached to the launcher.

The effect of cooling was to expand the seeker's lead sulphide detector element's 
sensitivity range to longer wavelengths (slightly over 4 µm as opposed to 2.8 µm of 
uncooled PbS elements). In practice this made possible the tracking of cooler targets 
over longer ranges, and enabled forward-hemisphere engagement of jets under favourable 
circumstances. The seeker also had better tracking rate, enabling the missile to track 
maneuvering of fast and approaching targets.

A negative side effect from the aforementioned improvements was increased missile 
weight, which caused a slight decrease in the kinematic performance compared with
Strela-2M (SA-7B). Against relatively slow, low-altitude battlefield air threats the overall 
effectiveness was much improved.

The new system was accepted into service in 1974. Strela-3 missiles have been exported 
to over 30 countries. 

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Known issues:

- System has limited all aspect capability mostly against slow, low-altitude targets.
 
- Helicopters have higher survival rate per hit because in some cases missiles hit the tail rotor 
  without causing significant damage. I guess this is another game engine characteristic.

- Low altitude (lower than 500 meters) performance is downgraded for current missile values. 
  By increasing noise rejection the missile becomes capable of hitting targets in lower altitude 
  but at the same time the single shot hit/kill probability is being increased to an unrealistic level. 

- Fuze distances are longer compared with the actual lethal and damage radius of the system. 
  In SF2 world the real high explosive warhead quantity is big enough to destroy a fighter size 
  target even in 10 meters! 

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As always open readme.txt first to see installation instructions and credits.

Lot of research and hard work was made to make this SAM as realistic as possible.
More than 2000 launches took place during testing!

Enjoy as much as you can this mod and leave comments with your in-game experience
in the support topic!

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License:

This is a freeware; yet it can be redistributed only in other CombatACE mod packages. 
You are free to make further modifications for own use but if you plan to release a modified
version of this package you must request permission first. In that case you must include original
read me file. This mod may not in any way, shape or form be used in any payware additions.