Maverick air to air usage

[eFirehawk]

Hello everyone,

 

Forgive me for this ultra-noob question and silly report, but still... I was wondering wether or not it's "realistic" to use Mavericks against aerial targets, such as the Black Shark.

 

I'm planning to fly my first mission in a few weeks from now so after learning most of the plane fundamentals I've been practicing many different things, experimenting with all the weapons, trying different tactics and so on, then the time came to practice air to air engagements with the Hog, everything was going pretty well, TGP AA usage, Sidewinder practice, etc. I can somewhat easily take down SU-25s and some helicopters, then I decided to place ground targets surrounding an airfield guarded by 2 KA-50s. I must admit that these Black Sharks got me swearing more than Eminem. :mad:

 

Sidewinders are only effective when they don't realize that I shot them and the missile reaches them before they drop flares. If they drop frares the AIM-9s will miss most the time... :noexpression: and since the Sidewinders only get a lock when I'm really close to them they dodge them almost 50% of the time. :helpsmilie:

 

Closing in for guns is pretty tricky. They turn at me and swiss-chesse my Hog until the end of times before I gain enough distance to shot accurately. :huh: The only way to avoid that is to fly high, dive and aim at them while coming down at a really steep angle like 20 degrees, but that approach keeps them on my blind spot and when I get to see them I have very little time to aim and after I'm done shooting, missing some tries I always get dangerously close to the ground. :P And that tactic can sometimes cost multiple passes before I succeed. Finding them with the TGP takes a lot of time, distance and fuel to return and do everything again.

 

Then I decided to try the Maverick. Guess what, I can shoot them from far away without they knowing what hit them. :) So far so good, but... the fact that I'm using an air to ground missile and managing to take them down without ever missing ( hasn't happened yet! :D ) doesn't feel right. Are Mavericks in real life capable of tracking down moving helicopters all the way until impact so well? Is it normal to consider it much more effective than Sidewinders for that purpose? Do real Hog pilots do this? Was that ever done?

 

Thanks

Edited March 1, 2013 by eFirehawk

[KillerSam]

The first point I would stress is that the A-10 although multi-role should not be considered an Air-to-Air tool and as such any Air-to-Air capability I would describe as just an added bonus.

 

The AIM-9 is pretty much there for defence, you'd never send in an A-10 knowingly to an aerial engagement.

 

I believe the mav does have the ability to track aerial targets but given it's speed, and the fact it's designed for slow moving ground targets it has a pretty poor success rate against any decent aircraft in my experience. There aren't many occassions in DCS A-10 when you need to engage aerial targets and I think if you feel like a maverick is your best bet then you are probably doing something wrong or would be better off avoiding a confrontation.

[luza]

Havn't tested in 1.2.3 but in 1.2.2 Mavs were far superior A2A weapons than AIM 9s.

 

This obviously isn't realistic, as my understand the maverick, I doubt it would be able to track fast air targets.

[eFirehawk]

@ KillerSam: Yes I'm aware of that. The reason why I'm training this is because it might happen that I need to attack ground targets with guns and there's no one to take down surrouding helicopters. Does that happen during the campaigns? It shouldn't but I'm preparing for this anyway, hopefully training this saves me one time or another :)

 

@ luza: Tested in 1.2.3 and until now they've been great as AA weapons for me.

Edited March 1, 2013 by eFirehawk

[KillerSam]

There is a mission that sticks in my mind where there are a load of soft ground targets along a road in a valley. And out of nowhere 2 helicopters fly down the valley firing missiles at you if you are low enough. So it would be beneficial to take them out I guess, although if you maintain altitude you can still achieve your mission objects (destroying the convoy) and avoid any hassle from them (the AI tends to take them out eventually with air-to-ground missiles).

 

Edit: I have a copy of the flight manual next to me and out of curiosity I flicked through to see if there is any mention of the MAV in an air-to-air role (either on the weapon profile, or combat employment) and there is no mention, it simply states about it's ability to track a target e.t.c. As expected on the AIM-9 section it states that it is purely for defence against "helpless helicopters that stray too close". I think in almost every mission you can almost disregard enemy aerial activity if you follow the brief and flight plan.

Edited March 1, 2013 by KillerSam

[Madone]

It's not realistic at all, it's never used in dogfight for the simple reason that mavericks aren't designed to make tight turns and avoid countermeasures.

Of course, you can use it to smash an heli hovering or moving slowly. But in dogfight that's a no go for me, I won't take the risk of losing a maverick in the blue sky...