How soon to fire

[Tomahawk674]

Quick question about missile use. Which one of these methods do you think is best?:

 

1) Launching the missile at the enemy as soon as he you get authorization, which means he'll probably evade it, but while manuevering he will loose energy, you will close in, and fire a second missile that will probably take him down.

 

2) Wait until he's closer to fire the first missile, this increasing the chance of it hitting (seen Ironhand doing it, but that's Ironhand), but he almost surely will fire at you too, which will make you go into evasion as well, then hope you don't break lock so you can turn in and fire again.

 

Which would you say is more proper? I think 1 is safer, but if I use too many missiles for 1 enemy, then if another shows up I'm toast.

 

Thanks for helping the newb.

[warthogmadman987]

What plane ur you flying? What missile? Because with the AIM-120, it is a fire and forget missile unlike the AIM-7, so i think before you can get an answer, we need to know a bit of specifics. Are you trying MP or SP?

[S77th-GOYA]

Which missile? Against which plane? AI or human?

 

But a general answer would be to fire if you need to make him busy (don't worry about his energy state, it can be recovered very quickly). Keep pressure on until you can make the kill.

[VVanks]

Russian missiles aren't fire and forget. So you'll have to dodge his missiles whilst firing at him AND keeping lock on him.

 

Pretty easy once you master it. You've gotta wait till he fires his first missile. Dive down, but steep enough to keep lock on him. Let the missle run out of fuel, climb up again, launch. By this time he would've launched his second, dive down again, repeat, launch.

[golfsierra2]

Russian missiles aren't fire and forget. So you'll have to dodge his missiles whilst firing at him AND keeping lock on him.

 

No VVanks, there is one amongst the Russian missiles:

The R-77 (AMRAAMSKI) is the equivalent to the AIM-120. If its said that the AIM-120 is a fire and forget, the R-77 is it as well.

 

About fire and forget:

Even for the AIM-120 the term is not fully correct, as both the AIM-120 and the R-77 need assistance by the aircraft radar (through lock) for a good portion of their way to the target, before they go 'active' meaning that their own tiny radar is able to pick up the target itself for the close-in kill.

 

True fire and forget are all heaters (AIM-9, R-73), which can be fired and you may turn away immediately, because those missiles don't need any further support from the carrying aircraft.

 

All Fox 1 missiles (AIM-7, R-27R) are missiles that need support (lock) until impact. Loosing lock by turning away yourself or by the opponent beaming will break your lock and the missile is trashed.