Use of ALARM?

[B52H]

Lately, I've been trying to test out the use of the ALARM anti radiation missile lately but have run into some difficulties with it. As compared to the AGM-88 HARM or one of the Soviet anti radiation missiles, the ALARM does not cause any strong damage at all to any SAM or radar guided AAA AAA site that it is launched at. Instead, the only facilities it can attack are radars.

I used a flight of 2 RAF Tornadoes to attack an Iraqi SA-2 battery, with the Tornadoes launching 4 ALARMs in total at the battery. The ALARMs did not impact the SAM battery when they reached it. The message log stated that the missiles "airbursted directly over target" or "detonated." However, the SA-2 radar was active during the entire attack and did not engage the ALARMs, and did not gain any damage as a result of the attack. The Tornadoes volleyed off the remaining 6 ALARMs and reached the same result.

I did a few more tests using this method against a ZSU-23 site, an SA-3 site, an SA-6 site, and an SA-10 site. All had the same result.

Was the ALARM designed not to target SAM and radar guided AAA systems? The ALARM was designed as a British counterpart to the HARM but the game clearly does not model this as the ALARM is extremely ineffective against any of the targets it was originally designed for. The ALARM works perfectly fine for destroying radars in game, and its real life combat records show its efficiency in Iraq and Serbia.

B52H

[VFA41_Lion]

I'm confused. The ALARM is destroying radars in-game or it isn't? That's the point of SEAD (suppression of enemy air defences). If you want to obliterate the battery entirely, you need bombs. Typically anti-radiation missiles contain warheads designed to shred radars and are ineffective against anything else.

[B52H]

Bad wording on my part. The ALARMs for some reason only seem to inflict damage on standalone radars that aren’t included in the same site as the SAM batteries themselves. For example, the ALARM only is able to attack a standalone radar like a YLC-4 instead of a standalone SAM site like an SA-2. The ALARM locks onto the SA-2’s radar but cannot seem to impact it;the ALARM only air bursts above it. The same goes with the mobile AAA.

As to the SEAD part, shouldn’t the ALARMs be able to take out the radars of the site only, at least? I’ve attacked a quite a few other SAM sites in other scenarios with AGM-88 HARMs and they have inflicted more than enough damage on both the radars and batteries themselves.

B-52H

[VFA41_Lion]

I'm unsure of the specific warhead of ALARM itself. I know the AGM-88's warhead is a bunch of tungsten rods that are direct impact on radars. ALARMs may be programmed to airburst over radars instead. As to why its not attacking SAM sites you target, it may be that its picking up other radars in it's seeker cone first and homing on them instead. I'm also unfamiliar with the ALARM in general and how to employ it, and how Command implements that as well. D:

[Rocksoldier]

Sounds like there is some bug in the damage model

[Schr75]

Hi B52H

I agree, this sounds a bit strange.
May I suggest that you post this in the tech support thread along with a save game that shows this behavior?

This way, the devs can take a look at it. Tech issues might get lost in the other threads.

S