Targets' separation question

[Marcast]

In a AWACS hunt mission I have an Il-76 escorted by two Flankers. At first on my radar I only see one contact, the Il-76 I guess because it's bigger than the fighters: If I lock it, the fighters get me quite easy as they get closer undisturbed. If I wait for locking the target, only when they are very close I can see some very small separation between them as the AWACS stays almost all the time close to the fighters closing on me. The result is that almost every time I get the AWACS, but I'm shot down by the fighters. I would first launch on the Flankers and once they are down go to the Il-76, is there any "secret" to distinguish from a good distance targets very close to each other?

[feefifofum]

Inside of 25 miles, your NCTR (Non Cooperative Target Recognition) should be able to identify the aircraft.

 

Look on the bottom of your RADAR display, the aircraft type should be shown in the center. Also, why not shoot at all three? :) Hit Alt-I to enter TWS mode, where you can lock and launch on up to 4 targets simultaneously. Just bug them in the order you want to shoot and have at it.

[winchesterdelta1]

Or you can just ignore the fighters. A 20 miles shot should be very doable on a AWACS. Done i several times even from greater distance. Just fire a couple missiles to be sure, wait for pitbull and run. But yes you can also just use TWS to lock them all up at the same time and fire at them at the same time.

 

Lock them all up in TWS. Get as much speed as you can, start cranking from 20 miles turn back in at 14 miles and fore when you are lined up. Crank again and wait for pitbull and run. If you miss you can always come back.

[PeaceSells]

The way I found to accomplish the kill AWACS mission in the F-15 campaign was to fly very very high (above 50,000 feet) and very very fast. This allowed me to fire from a very long distance, specially because the AIM-120 will hit an AWACS at a longer distance than it will hit the escort fighters. I waited for pitbull and ran away, flying stupidly high and fast. The escort fighters couldn't touch me and the AWACS was killed.

 

But I guess that was only possible because, in that mission, the AWACS don't turn away form you, it just keeps flying in almost a head on path, which probably doesn't make a lot of sense.