Is missile malfunction simulated?

[Stratos 3,188]

Flying a mission over Syria today in a flight of 4 Neshers with two Shafrir 2 each. Meet 4 Fishbeds and got one with guns, one of my Shafrir was fired with the Mig21 in a straight course and full afterburner. Got a good tone and launched, the damn Fishbed started a hard turn still in full AB, 90 degrees to the left, and I tought missiles will lose lock, but it continued to track and turned against the enemy pretty elegantly. Imdecided to jump to weapon view, and the missile tracked the enemy until passing harmlessly at 6 or 7 m of the Fished without exploding but still turning. Missile lost track as soon as it passed by the Mig21 side.

Was a coincidence or the missile failed to explode? Or it was not close enough to the enemy plane?

[FastCargo 412]

Sure it is. Look at a data ini for any missile...you'll see tons of lines with probability data.

 

FC

[macelena 1,070]

It sure makes it interesting. Missile malfunction puts some fun in that era...i guess it was not as funny when the real thing happened, but the missile malfunction features being in or out was one of the points of friction with recent patching. Otherwise, one would get eight kills per Phantom sortie

[Lazarus1177 164]

From my experience,missiles such as the Aim-9B and the Aim-7 fail 70% of the time on all game difficulty settings set to full.

[FastCargo 412]

That sounds about right...

 

FC

[Do335 382]

i can never hit anything with aim-9b...thank god there's no ground war in 'nam camps

[+Stary 2,427]

Aim-9 locking onto ground heat sources... now that would be neat!

 

yep, 60-80% failure rate in my case (don't know which weapon pack) is about right

[+Crusader 2,101]

The sun is a missile magnet too.

I remember that during testing the Soviet MANPADS mod, I had swarms of missiles heading for the sun.

IR seekers usually have a 20° 'dead zone' around the sun, dont shoot at a target in that zone.

Later gen sekers are somewhat improved in that regard.

[Stratos 3,188]

For me it was a WOW moment! Never experimented something like that in any sim before.

[+Stary 2,427]

I think Tomcat Fire At Will had it modelled too

[Lazarus1177 164]

Another problem I have experienced is accidental lock on to a friendly bird.This happens on all planes without HUDs.You just can't tell which aircraft is locked when both the target and your (stupid)wingman are filling up the gunsight.And then the dreadful message:friendly fire reported in your.....AARRGGGHHH!

[+Stary 2,427]

Another problem I have experienced is accidental lock on to a friendly bird

makes things a bit more... real, doesn't?

[Do335 382]

Another problem I have experienced is accidental lock on to a friendly bird.This happens on all planes without HUDs.You just can't tell which aircraft is locked when both the target and your (stupid)wingman are filling up the gunsight.And then the dreadful message:friendly fire reported in your.....AARRGGGHHH!

 

same thing happens with HUD too. dunno if changing "seeker fov" has any effect?

[+daddyairplanes 10,234]

that or the classic advise.... be as sure as you can of your target before shooting. if your working w/o any kind of HUD then you're probably working in the earlier years with at most AIM-9B and more likely guns or rockets. do what Erich Hartmann did, get close enough the enemy is filling your windscreen. when he's that close ya can't fail to know who your shooting!

[Lt. James Cater 62]

I remember firing a Falcon at a MIG 21 flying perfectly straight and level and having the damn thing just zip by the target and keep going. Also, in the early WOE campaigns the Aim9B is more or less garbage at low level while intercepting IL28s but at altitude it does a lot better.

Edited September 4, 2012 by Lt. James Cater

[Do335 382]

yep looks like low altitude is pretty much guns... sparrow is even worse

[Z09SS 21]

The Falcon seems to have a minimum range too. If you're too close it's going to zip past without guiding.