AIM-120 Can't Hit A IL-78 HOT When Launched At 50nm, Track Included

[Teriander]

Hello,

 

Flying an F-18 at 37,000 feet at mach 1.  Bandit is a Il-78 at 30,000 on my nose.  Bandit is set to not take evasive action, zero chaff, and will only flight straight and on course, no matter what.
Fired a AIM-120 when the bandit is at 50nm.  Maintained lock the entire path.  The 120 has plenty of speed and altitude to reach the target and continues to track, but misses the Il-78 by a matter of 100ft or so.  EVERYTIME.  Why is this?

 

I've included 3 tracks.  The 03 track I removed all Chaff from the bandit, just to make sure it wasn't chaffing.  Same results.

 

 

F-18_AIM120_Fail_00.trk F-18_AIM120_Fail_01.trk F-18_AIM120_Fail_03.trk

[dundun92]

How long was the missile in the air? The AMRAAM has an 80s battery life, perhaps that expired?

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

I noticed you made that shot in TWS: I have also noticed that TWS in the Hornet and Falcon is "unreliable" (understatement of the year) since at least 2.7. You'd have made that kill in STT, but I have also noticed that AMRAAMs fired in TWS have at most a 50% hit chance at a non-defending target, and 0% at a defending target. I've even seen an AIM120 miss an Il-76 flying straight and level from a distance of 3nm (!).

At least the F-14 doesn't seem to have problems with TWS: my Phoenixes have worked quite well lately.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Raven (Elysian Angel)
typo

[Teriander]

34 minutes ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

I noticed you made that shot in TWS: I have also noticed that TWS in the Hornet and Falcon is "unreliable" (understatement of the year) since at least 2.7. You'd have made that kill in STT, but I have also noticed that AMRAAMs fired in TWS have at most a 50% hit chance at a non-defending target, and 0% at a defending target. I've even seen an AIM120 miss an Il-76 flying straight and level from a distance of 3nm (!).

At least the F-14 doesn't seem to have problems with TWS: my Phoenixes have worked quite well lately.

 

I've used different settings in 3 different tracks.  I believe in Track 03, I was in RWS and STT when fired and the results were the same.  Maybe it was Track 02.  But once the 120 auto tracks itself to the target when its within 10nm, it shouldn't matter if Im locked TWS or RWS,  It's in Fire-And-Forget mode. 

[GGTharos]

1 hour ago, Teriander said:

Flying an F-18 at 37,000 feet at mach 1.  Bandit is a Il-78 at 30,000 on my nose.  Bandit is set to not take evasive action, zero chaff, and will only flight straight and on course, no matter what.
Fired a AIM-120 when the bandit is at 50nm.  Maintained lock the entire path.  The 120 has plenty of speed and altitude to reach the target and continues to track, but misses the Il-78 by a matter of 100ft or so.  EVERYTIME.  Why is this?

 

How long is it in flight?   There's an 80 second battery and rule of thumb is 2sec/nm head on ... which means 50nm is beyond the missile's ability to guide under 'rule of thumb' conditions.

[Teriander]

10 minutes ago, GGTharos said:

 

How long is it in flight?   There's an 80 second battery and rule of thumb is 2sec/nm head on ... which means 50nm is beyond the missile's ability to guide under 'rule of thumb' conditions.

I'll have to run the tracks again and time it.  I don't have a chance now.  But that very well could be the issue.  

[GGTharos]

Use tacview, it'll help immensely with this sort of thing.

[TAW_Blaze]

50nm is past the battery limit even against a co altitude Mach 1 target when fired supersonic.

[Peter22]

On 4/27/2021 at 2:46 PM, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

I noticed you made that shot in TWS: I have also noticed that TWS in the Hornet and Falcon is "unreliable" (understatement of the year) since at least 2.7. You'd have made that kill in STT, but I have also noticed that AMRAAMs fired in TWS have at most a 50% hit chance at a non-defending target, and 0% at a defending target. I've even seen an AIM120 miss an Il-76 flying straight and level from a distance of 3nm (!).

At least the F-14 doesn't seem to have problems with TWS: my Phoenixes have worked quite well lately.

 

I love DCS but the F /18C AIM120 are a disaster!!!! 

[Blinky.ben]

Thought I would give this ago. I'm launching in TWS at 30,000ft the missile that hits is fired 40nm away against an f-18. The first missile goes way beyond the battery life, The second AIM-120 that hits the fighter destroyed the F-18 2 second beyond the battery life so this shouldn't happen but who cares about 2 seconds the third missile also hits the burning wreckage shortly after. I can easily repeat this.

DCS F-18C AIM-120C Lofting test (Beyond Battery Life) 02MAY21.zip.acmi

Edited May 2, 2021 by Blinky.ben

[GGTharos]

The missile that hits at 40nm (about 82 sec) may have already not been guiding for the last two seconds.  Or, maybe they extended battery life to 90 seconds .. or 85.  But yep, basically everything seems to be working right here.

 

If you want a 50nm kill go M2 for both aircraft at 40000' or 50000' ... you should be able to get 50-60nm.  Obviously use a different aircraft

 

I think this answers the OP though.