TV and IR Guided Weapons on the Phantom... Bug or 'Feature'?

[Cool Breeze]

Hey folk, so I'm playing around with different SEAD loadouts like Shrike coupled with Hobo or Walleye and I'm running into a bit of a delay in employment.

I know TV and IR guided weapons require a three minute warm up time, but is this required for every activation? On an air start practice mission of mine I load up a pair of Shrikes and either a pair of Hobos or Walleye. Set up for the TV weapons is by the book HUD Mode to A/G with 17 mils depression, Master Arm On, Stations selected, Weapon selector to TV, Delivery mode to Direct, and DSCG select switch to TV. From there I receive picture from the weapons just fine and piper depression looks good with the TV feed. Now I switch over to the Shrike Master Arm On, Stations selected, Weapon selector to ARM, and Delivery mode to AGM-45. The search radar is up, so I'm getting good tone from the Shrike. Run in on the radars, do some pilot stuff, and send the Shrike on their merry way to teach the bad guys that shooting missiles at people is naughty!

Now comes the delay, regardless if it's a quick change or a few minutes, switching back to the TV munitions requires about three minutes to get the TV picture back on the DSCG. Again if it's 'feature' then so be it, but it seems a bit illogical that once the weapons are spun up and the stations are left powered on that just switching between Delivery and/or Weapons modes should make them go dead cold immediately. I have similar results with using the Mavericks regardless of which type IR or TV. Maybe it's a difference in the platform, but if testing with other aircraft is a guide then switching from Mavericks to other weapons then back to Mavericks doesn't result in the same problem.

Is this just a tactical employment issue that these weapons would have never been utilized together in real life, because of the possible repeated  warm up times when used on the Phantom? I have a hard time understanding why that would be the case when we have so many pre made weapons profiles with these weapons paired, either Shrike with Hobo and Walleye or the Mavericks.

If I'm doing something incorrectly I'm happy to learn and correct this issue.

Thanks folks!

[Zabuzard]

Afaik the 3 minute timer is hardcoded in the real jet and linked to the Weapon Selector being in TV. So yes, if you move it out of TV, the counter has to start from 0.