[WAD][B1307.18] AA-10 Alamo fly 'straight' to the target - not follow energy-based flight model for boost-coast missiles

[peacekeeper118]

Run the scenario editor mode, and go to the Vietnamese view. You can see AA-10C missiles fired by Su-27s southeast of Hanoi flying horizontally.



I have a question apart from the bug report. The AA-10 Alamo series has significantly longer booster combustion times than other air-to-air missiles of the same era. Is this true? I think the performance is too overrated.



Originally, in this scenario, PL-12 missiles were enough to easily beat the Vietnamese Air Force. But now, the time of the PL-12 missile's rocket motor burning is much shorter than that of the AA-10C, making it difficult to shoot down Vietnamese Air Force fighters. If the PL-12 WRA is NEZ, they can barely shoot even within five miles. This has made it really difficult to collect scenario scores.



Before a little time passed in the uploaded file, PLAAF fighter jets were able to shoot missiles while flying at higher elevations, but the distance to launch the missiles (nearly by NEZ) was still much shorter than AA-10C (about 12 miles).

[Dimitris]

Hi, just looked at this now.

Run the scenario editor mode, and go to the Vietnamese view. You can see AA-10C missiles fired by Su-27s southeast of Hanoi flying horizontally.

This is WAD. All versions of the AA-10 support only direct-flight profile, not lofting. The first Russian AAM that supports lofting is the R-77-1 (AA-12B).

I have a question apart from the bug report. The AA-10 Alamo series has significantly longer booster combustion times than other air-to-air missiles of the same era. Is this true? I think the performance is too overrated.

This makes sense. Non-lofting missiles have a lot more drag to overcome, and they cannot re-energize their trajectory towards the endgame like lofting missiles do. As a result, they have to be longer-burning (and often psychically larger/heavier) in order to reach the same range. (What usually happens is that "lofters" in the same dimension & weight class simply reap the benefits of increased range and terminal energy. AIM-7F vs AIM-7E or AA-12B vs AA-12A are examples of this.)