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AIM-120 Range?


Ragnar65

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Hi,

during today´s training flight I had a few Russian transporters and tankers in the air. My radar locks them well, but the selcted AIM-120 doesn´t give the shoot-cue ´til i´m appr. <20mls away. Shouldn´t a "long-range-missile" be released at longer ranges? Technical specs of the AIM-120 give 55 up to >100mls according to the different models of the missile.

Any cue what´s happening?

 

 

kind regards

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shoot cue is heavily dependant on altitude speed and aspect angle, 20nm its petty average best i got was close to 35nm at very high altitude an head on speed, your range date is innacurate

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Hi,

during today´s training flight I had a few Russian transporters and tankers in the air. My radar locks them well, but the selcted AIM-120 doesn´t give the shoot-cue ´til i´m appr. <20mls away. Shouldn´t a "long-range-missile" be released at longer ranges? Technical specs of the AIM-120 give 55 up to >100mls according to the different models of the missile.

Any cue what´s happening?

 

 

kind regards

 

 

AIM-120 will be overhauled soon, like the AIM-7and AIM-9 series were recently.

Expect better results then, just not 100 miles.

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Those numbers advertised aren't real range, they're advertising numbers - the missile will never fly 100nm in reality. What it means is that if you're at, for example, 60,000ft and travelling Mach 2.5 and you fire a missile at someone travelling straight at you at 60,000ft and travelling Mach 2.5, then at the point you fire your range to them will be 100nm (for example - the range of the 120 we've got seems closer to the 55nm).

 

You can see it fairly easily in game - put a Hornet at 60kft and 800kts ingame, clean except for two 120s in the fuselage stations with an enemy going the same speed at the same altitude 80nm away from you. You'll get a shoot cue at around 50-60nm probably. On the deck, the same missile will probably only show you 15-20nm.


Edited by backspace340
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Missile range is always the displacement the missile travels. The separation between the launching platform and the target at the moment of launch isn't range.

 

 

 

The latest AIM-120 do have about 100nm range under certain conditions and that means if you mark on a map where the launch and final position are, those two marks will be 100nm apart. If the target started closer or farther has no relevancy to the range figure.

 

 

However DCS is probably not going to model AIM-120C-8 or AIM-120C-7. Models AIM-120C-6 and older have significantly less range, 60nm at best.

 

If you're going back to A/B or early C models it's significantly less.

 

 

And best possible range conditions will be longer than your particular. Maybe your M1.3 delivery at 30,000' only goes 35nm. Shoot cue comes at Rtr or Rne which is less than maximum range (I think?). It's not too unusual for such a range to be on the order of 20nm.

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Speaking about "long-range missile", I can't help pointing out that AMRAAM stands for Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile.

Also, I noticed you wrote "miles" as "mls". Don't forget there are two kind of miles, nautical and statute. Nautical miles are always used in aviation, but it is possible that some sources made for the general public may use statute miles instead (for the record, 100 sm = 87 nm, not a huge difference but still). For example, aircraft speed are often reported in the media in mph instead of knots.

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Missile range is always the displacement the missile travels. The separation between the launching platform and the target at the moment of launch isn't range.

 

 

 

The latest AIM-120 do have about 100nm range under certain conditions and that means if you mark on a map where the launch and final position are, those two marks will be 100nm apart. If the target started closer or farther has no relevancy to the range figure.

 

 

...

 

What you wrote is a bit confusing I think, to clarify for people: Max range for a missile is almost always advertised under high altitude, high speed, nose hot conditions. So you have two aircraft closing directly at each other at or near mach1, this is the ideal perfect shoot conditions.

 

That means, yes an AIM120D might have a 100mile (for example only) max range, as in you can fox that missile when you are 100 miles away from your target. Now, after the missile is fired, while the missile is in the air the enemy aircraft is still closing that distance quite rapidly. The target aircraft might travel 30 miles closer while the missile is in the air, resulting in the missile only traveling 70 miles from it's launch point (just an example)

 

Also for OP:

 

^ that would be considered RMAX, not RNEZ, because if the target immediately turns cold or maneuvers when he gets launched on, the missile isn't going to have enough energy to kill the target. Your RNEZ in this example might only be 40miles, meaning that the launch happens at 40 miles separation and the target immediately maneuvers. The missile, launched at less than half of it's max advertised range (100miles in this example) now has enough energy to reach the target even if he turns away and tries to outrun the missile.

 

The take away, is you can't always launch a missile at it's max advertised range, because the missile usually can't travel that far and retain enough energy to be dangerous, BUT if your target is closing nose hot at high speed, he's going to shorten the range the missile has to actually travel by flying toward you (and toward the missile), meaning you can fire it from further away. Most of the info you can find on modern missiles is not in any way accurate or even based in reality, those are very tightly guarded numbers, Wikipedia is not a valid source.

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