Missile Evasion at Close Range?

[JazonXD]

Hi all, I'm looking for some tips or advice on missile evasion if someone has fired at me from within 10 miles. Now, I know most of you are going to say that I shouldn't have gotten myself in that situation in the first place, and I will admit, yes, that's true, but sometimes, the situation will occur. So what do I do? Is it better to turn around and fly away while pumping out chaff or is it better to put the missile at my 9/3 (beaming, I think it's called?) while pumping chaff? This is assuming this is a radar guided, either semi or active.

 

Also, if anyone would be kind enough to properly explain to me how to beam, that would be nice. I know the gist of it, but not all the details of how to perform the maneuver correctly. Thanks.

[Exorcet]

If the missile is launched close enough such that the motor is still burning when it gets to you, your only hope is chaff or terrain masking. In this kind of situation, it's more about what you do before the launch rather than after. If you are in a position where you can do something like dive behind a mountain, do that. If that doesn't look like it will be possible, try to run away before you get shot at.

 

Also consider what the enemy will do. Beaming the missile might work, but that just lets the attack get closer for free. If you successfully evade the first missile, you just get another one that is even harder to dodge. Just running all the way to base/SAM's might be best.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that missile turn performance and drag varies with altitude. Depending on the range, I like to drag missiles fired at me up (DCS tends to make them over compensate) to make their maneuvers sluggish, and then drive down. Doing this prevents the missile from building up energy and down low what little energy it has is bled very quickly in turns.

[JazonXD]

If the missile is launched close enough such that the motor is still burning when it gets to you, your only hope is chaff or terrain masking. In this kind of situation, it's more about what you do before the launch rather than after. If you are in a position where you can do something like dive behind a mountain, do that. If that doesn't look like it will be possible, try to run away before you get shot at.

 

Also consider what the enemy will do. Beaming the missile might work, but that just lets the attack get closer for free. If you successfully evade the first missile, you just get another one that is even harder to dodge. Just running all the way to base/SAM's might be best.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that missile turn performance and drag varies with altitude. Depending on the range, I like to drag missiles fired at me up (DCS tends to make them over compensate) to make their maneuvers sluggish, and then drive down. Doing this prevents the missile from building up energy and down low what little energy it has is bled very quickly in turns.

 

Ahh okay. Sounds very intuitive. Thanks for the advice :thumbup:

[winchesterdelta1]

You can still run from the missile if it's fired from 7 miles and you are going around mach 1 or higher.. But you need to do a MAX G turn, split S or slice back on max G. This maneuver has to be done instantly. If you wait 1 or 2 seconds you are death. This maneuver has to be done as aggressive as possible without blacking out or losing to much speed.

Edited July 8, 2016 by winchesterdelta1

[Aginor]

I would also recommend chaffing/flaring like hell and pulling Gs, preferably towards the ground (ground clutter, maybe even terrain masking, depending on your altitude).

If it is a radar missile you might be lucky and beam it, or it could lose you in the ground clutter. Your chaff and the Gs will make it harder for it to hit you.

If it is an IR missile you should come out of burner, it will improve your chance of evading.

[Bushmanni]

Running away is preferable if you have a wingman to shoo away or kill the bandit if he's aggressive and decides to start a chase. Kinematic evasion is the most reliable way to not get hit by a missile.

 

In 1vs1 you want to beam the missile and dive into notch (while chaffing) so that you can turn your nose into offensive quicker and hopefully shoot the next missile before the bandit. You want to be able to shoot your next missile faster so the bandit doesn't have time to shoot or turn into notch (and live) if he does shoot. When you force the bandit defensive you keep shooting the bandit until he takes a hit and goes down in flames.

 

If a missile is launched from a lower altitude then you you might be able to drive it into the ground by diving and pulling up at the last minute.

 

Beaming is simple to explain but not that easy to pull of quickly. You need to put the threat emitter exactly at your 3/9 line using RWR as guide. First you should make a coarse 90 degree turn while diving (you need to get below the radar for the notch to work) and then level wings to check RWR and make adjustments accordingly. RWR has blind spots on top and below the plane so you need to turn the bottom of your plane away from the radar for the RWR to pick it up and update the marker position on the RWR screen.

 

Chaff works the better the closer you are to the notch so dump chaff while you try to notch. You can usually decoy the missile with chaff even if you fail to notch it. You can't reliably decoy the missile with chaff especially if you don't get very close to the notch so you should always try to notch and deploy chaff at the same time.

 

The range where the missile is able to catch you depends on relative altitudes and speeds of the target and launcher. The 10 NM distance is way too far to expect a hit at sea level while almost impossible to avoid at 30k. Still if you can notch quickly and reliably you can trash missiles fired from very close ranges. In optimal situation you need about 4 seconds to get into the notch and if you have that time you can defeat the missile.

[craig_sez]

At 7-10 miles you will have long enough to realize your being shot at before you need to make ANY move that will take on the angle to increase your chances..

[Bushmanni]

Depends on altitude. Around 10k and above you need to start evading before you get missile warning, especially if the bandit is below you and therefore you can't notch.

[Pitot]

Add violent evasive maneuvers to the list. Tho, keep in mind that using them bleeds your airspeed.

Also, analyse this:

Evasive Maneuvres A2A

[Bushmanni]

Maneuvering is effective only against missiles fired from way too far away and only noobs do that as everyone else know that those missiles will have zero practical effect on the bandit. All you need to do is slalom past those missiles. Only when the missile has enough energy at end game to force the target to break lock because of his defensive maneuver (beaming or running away) the shot has meaningful effect that can be exploited.

 

After certain point slaloming becomes ineffective and you need to resort to more effective maneuvers which force you to break lock on the bandit. After this point you get pretty quickly to the point where you can't evade the missile by maneuvering at all. So you could evade a missile fired from 10 NM at 20k by hard maneuvering but you would end up low on energy (and likely low on SA due to disorientation from maneuvering) and helpless target for the second shot. Also it's very easy to actually be in a situation where you can't avoid the missile by maneuvering as the margin is small and hard to judge. Basically after slaloming becomes ineffective it's safer to resort to other tactics to defeat the missile that also preserve your energy.

[Fri13]

If we would just have a simulated chaff and radar, it would become easier to avoid radar seeking missiles.

[Pitot]

Bushmanni, I didn't think of many many many maneuvers, just one or two (two - that's why the plural) at right time to make missile loose track - and when it's close to you.

[Ktulu2]

In dcs, missiles guidance is very bad, so you can choose from two things at close range :

1- Just outrun it like many said if you are fast and manoeuver a little. At the moment against a good player, a 4NM missile going at a cold target is useless.

 

2-Drag it into the ground : Go full AB, go upwards and away or at 90° from the missile, than pull 9g and go downwards with the biggest angle from the horizontal possible and only pull up at the last moment before crashing, that will make the missile bleed its energy FAST and it will run into the ground if the vertical angle is big enough. I've defeated 2NM slammers that way...you just need to have a good starting speed.