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Having installed the latest Beta Build (1774), I played around with the North Pacific Shootout scenario.

When the Soviet interceptors fired on the P-3 Orion conducting the FONOPS flight, the engaging fighter is marked hostile before firing due to the FC radar lock on (per the tweak added in this build).

TWEAK: Units that are within the relevant engagement range of another unit (e.g. aircraft inside nominal range of SAM site) and are being illuminated (for weapon fire control / guidance) by that unit will consider themselves under attack (and take relevant action, e.g. evade if allowed) even if no distinct weapon is detected incoming.

The P-3 in question attempts evasion as expected, but my other airborne aircraft (F-14s, EA-6B, E-2) also go defensive, despite being far beyond any danger from this missile launch/FC radar.

The new auto-evade upon FC illumination should be checked to be sure that it only affects units actually being illuminated, as the current behavior I've seen can throw off entire scenarios with all aircraft everywhere going defensive when just one is locked on/fired upon.

I think this can be tested by simply loading up North Pacific Shootout, launching a few aircraft from the Ranger and await the P=3 being locked-on/fired upon by the Soviet interceptors.

IIRC, the change was made because there were complaints that only the targeted aircraft was going into evasion. Some players wanted all/other aircraft to all respond defensively. My question is which aircraft should or should not go defensive?

thewood1 wrote: Sun Nov 23, 2025 2:03 am IIRC, the change was made because there were complaints that only the targeted aircraft was going into evasion. Some players wanted all/other aircraft to all respond defensively. My question is which aircraft should or should not go defensive?

I thought the change was so that the locked on aircraft recognize FC radar as an active threat and save precious seconds by going evasive before the enemy weapons is launched.

Maybe a better solution would be to change the Auto-Evasion option, so that there's two "Yes" options;
- Yes, upon FC illumination on Self (I.e. only aircraft that detect the Lock-On emissions)
- Yes, Upon enemy weapon detection (current standard)

I don't see why having ALL airborne aircraft, across a large battlespace, going defensive when one aircraft is locked on with a FC radar would make sense. Besides, when FC radar locks onto a target, wouldn't that generally only radiate on a narrow bearing or handful of bearings?

For the time being, I'm going to revert to 1728.2

Can you please post a save?

OK. Ran a rough test using an F-16A with AIM-120B against a bunch or Mig-29s arrayed around it. The goal is to get the F-16 to fire at the oncoming Mig-29s and look at the reaction of the array of Mig-29s. Here is a pic of the set up.


Here is a rough play by play

13:15:48 Mig-29 1 Def, Mig 29-2 Goes Defensive(2 new AAM detected)

13:15:50 Mig-29 1 Def, Mig 29-2 Def, Mig-29 5 Def, Mig 29-3 Goes Defensive(2 more AAM detected)

13:15:54 Mig-29 1 Def, Mig 29-2 Def, Mig-29 5 Def, Mig 29-3 Def, Mig 29-6 Goes Defensive(no new AAM detected)

13:16:17 Mig-29 1 Def, Mig 29-2 Def, Mig-29 5 Def, Mig 29-3 Def, Mig-29-6 back on plotted course (AAM course and range known)

13:16:52 Mig-29 1 killed, Mig 29-2 Def, Mig-29 5 Def, Mig 29-3 now on plotted course, Mig 29-6 now on plotted course, (AAM course and range known but two new AAM )

Mig-29 4 and 7 stayed on plotted course. Range from 4 and 7 to 1 is about 32 nm. Range of 4 and 7 from AAM is 22 nm. AAM course unknown until less that 12 nm and speed is unknown

Mig 8 and 9 are crossing the F-16s path. Goes Defensive when AAMs are launched within 20 nm, but quickly (within 2-4 seconds). Goes back to plotted course once AAM course is known

Mig 10 is behind the F-16 at 20 nm following and blips to going to defensive when AAMs are detected, but immediately goes back to plotted course.


My personal conclusion is this works fairly well and in most cases, I assume, it is what we would want to happen. Its actually a lot more sophisticated than I noted at first blush. I noted that the Mig-29s don't go defensive until an actual missile launch. My next test is to look at just the FCR illumination, but suspect it works very similar. I was watching for that and didn't see anything around just the lock up. The defensive status appears to be based on range, orientation from the missile to self, AAM missile course, and maybe range to launching aircraft. Any one of the parameters appears to have an impact on whether the target goes defensive.

The illumination test will swap out the AMRAAM with Sparrow.

OK. I can see the problem with SARH AAMs. All those Mig-29s surrounding the F-16 go defensive immediately after the AAM is detected by anyone. Even once the course of the AAM is known, the Mig-29s behind the firing F-15 go off on defensive. Here is the scenario that shows it.

I moved the trailing Mig-29 to 500 nm and it still goes defensive on any unit detecting an enemy AAM launch.

@thewood1

Thanks for the deep dive. I made a similar observation (without your thorough testing though) in the beta announcement thread. I believe the change is TOO consequential, especially to those (like me) that don't micromanage at all. I would honestly prefer to see something in the opposite direction (i.e. only the A/C that is radar locked after a missile launch going defensive).

If this was introduced as a third option to Auto-Evade that would be ok.

I've observed the same behavior in a previous scenario. Even units located far from the action were constantly on the defensive whenever a SARH fire control radar was active. This resulted in them never reaching the target area due to fuel depletion. I have the impression that this behavior isn't ideal.

I haven't created a dedicated save file for this yet. I just noticed it immediately.

This has been fixed for the next update.

Appears to work very well in 1776. Thats in my test scenario. Thanks for the fast fix.

I am currently experiencing this as well, and I understand it is "expected behavior", but I am having it to where an aircraft is illuminated by a SAM, and then I have units literally 2,000km away but with the aircraft being targetted between the SAM and the aircraft, they are also going defensive and remain until the radar is no longer illuminating the target.

I am fine with the change but I think there needs to be an option to toggle whether you want non-engaged units to evade or not, because while the change fixes one problem, it creates the current issue we are having since the only effective way is to turn off auto evade, and that has its own issues considering I cant tell a unit manually to evade.

"I am currently experiencing this as well, and I understand it is "expected behavior""

I am confused. Are you talking about the original problem? Or are you complaining about the behavior after the fix? "this" and "expected behavior" are very ambiguous.