AIM-7 Sparrow tracking

[jonsky7]

Hi,

 

Anyone else having issues with the sparrows not tracking? Target remains in lock after firing but most the time the missile is oblivious as to where the target is.

 

Even the AI seems to be having trouble hitting anything with them.

 

Thanks

[xakura]

Have you tried looking at the tracks in TacView? To try to see when/why the sparrow deviates from the target? It might be it's going for chaff.

 

Also, are you absolutely certain you have radar lock? Television Camera System lock will also give you an indicator over the target ("movable reticle", it's the big plus sign).

[jonsky7]

Thanks for leaving a message. I just tried making a very simple mission in the editor and it seemed to be working fine.

 

I had downloaded "Operation Snowfox" and they don't seem to be tracking in that mission, maybe it has something to do with the scripts running in that mission.

 

Cheers

[Bob Morton]

AIM-7 are terrible at hitting targets. Honestly I find that if I fire them at more than 10miles there is zero chance of a hit. If I fire them between 10 and 5 miles or so there is a 25% chance they might hit a target that is aggressively maneuvering. Below 5 miles against an aggressively maneuvering target will likely miss as well. I don’t think it is a script error. If you look at the hit ratio for AIM-7 in real life it is extremely low, just like in DCS.

[jonsky7]

AIM-7 are terrible at hitting targets. Honestly I find that if I fire them at more than 10miles there is zero chance of a hit. If I fire them between 10 and 5 miles or so there is a 25% chance they might hit a target that is aggressively maneuvering. Below 5 miles against an aggressively maneuvering target will likely miss as well. I don’t think it is a script error. If you look at the hit ratio for AIM-7 in real life it is extremely low, just like in DCS.

 

I get what your saying but in the quick mission I made I was consistently hitting targets, though I had set the enemy to do nothing against a threat.

 

Whilst playing snowfox however, the missiles aren't even turning off the rail, just going straight ahead.

[streakeagle]

AIM-7Ms got the best kill ratio of any variant at about 35% in Desert Storm. 25% sounds pretty close to reality :) In Vietnam, it was more like 10-15%.

 

In DCS with the F-14, I have had very good luck with them taking out MiG-23s head on. But against maneuvering targets and/or countermeasures, not so much.

 

Despite its horrible performance record, it is still my all-time favorite air-to-air missile. If the radar and missile are maintained and the pilot really knows the firing envelope, they can be deadly. Steve Ritchie loved them in Vietnam.