Matrix Games Forums

Observe the two Harpoons over the north coast of Tunisia already travelling against a Frigate close to Pantelleria AB. At some point they will drop their target, acquire a civilian boat, diverge from their course and destroy the wrong target

This is WAD, if another target enters the radar cone of a harpoon or any other ASM without target discrimination there's a chance it will go after that instead. This is why its important to plot dog-legs or maneuver for the best shot in a populated environment. The only thing I can see being an issue here is that it may turn its radar on to early and we can look into that

There's a reason the Danes call the Harpoon the "oopsie missile"

Raptorx7_slith wrote: Wed Aug 06, 2025 9:32 pm This is WAD, if another target enters the radar cone of a harpoon or any other ASM without target discrimination there's a chance it will go after that instead. This is why its important to plot dog-legs or maneuver for the best shot in a populated environment. The only thing I can see being an issue here is that it may turn its radar on to early and we can look into that

Correct that was the point. I was expecting that it will go radars ON quite later. This seems to happen at half the distance from target.

Indeed the plotted course for those 2 harpoons is much shorter.

The log file would be helpful here. The situation is very dependent on when the missiles were fired and where the contact was when fired. The log file will help recreate the situation for a good analysis.

edit: Actually going through the in-game message log sheds some light. It also shows the danger in out-of-comms self guiding missiles. The Harpoon D has a passive radar seeker with a 10 mile range. It is right at the 10 mile range when it detects the civ ship. And its original target ship is still not a solid lock. So the Harpoon guides to the nav radar on the civ ship. If I shut off the civ ships radar, the Harpoon goes right past it on to its original target.

My only question is if a passive radar seeker would guide on a nav radar. Its plausible, but not sure if the missile has to be configured to only look for its target's radar signals in real life. Overall its WAD.