Pros and Cons of AAM Arsenals

BTW wouldn’t SARH be better than ARH in case of intense jamming. Do ARH missiles have a built in SARH mode in case its seeker is denied by jamming?

Nic

Common core body (electronics, warhead) with modular seekers (radar active; IR with SARH), standard motor sized for slightly beyond visual range plus sustainer for end-game TVC, and optional booster motor for a ballistic long-range shot. Make it a hittile.

And also how useful are super long range BVR missiles? The answer is “How good is your targeting?” If you can target the enemy at extreme ranges, then it is beneficial to possess a missile that you can shoot at him before he can shoot at you. The first shot wins. Even if you don’t hit him, you force him to go defensive, spoiling his ability to shoot at you. Get him to bleed energy to escape the first missile and the second missile has a better probability of getting him. If your enemy is flying stealthy airplanes that you cannot detect until you are within 20 miles, then long-range super missiles are a wasted effort.

Super long range missiles could also be useful to take a shot at the supporting aircrafts of those stealthy airplanes (tanker support, awacs support), and deny them the ability to either stay on station as much as needed or to remain stealthy by being guided by awacs and force them to turn on their own radars.

Nic

1. Single missile with multiple roles This can require a sophisticated (expensive) seeker capable of detecting targets using multi-band RF, IR and SAL techniques, a smart fuze for the warhead and A2A/A2G roles defined by software within the seeker. From an operations perspective, an airplane armed with such missiles could take on a wide range of air and ground targets. You’ll never get caught carrying the wrong missile for the wrong target. Countermeasures against a missile that can switch between modes becomes quite challenging for your enemy. From a logistics perspective, “one missile fits all” makes resupply simple. Procurement costs of the “one missile fits all” missile can be reasonable due to economies of scale. After all, you’re replacing 3 missiles (RF, IR and anti-radiation) with a single type.

2. Single missile with different seekers/warheads Here, the only common component is the missile motor. Seekers/warheads for different roles have different sizes/weights. Different sizes/weights propagate differences in flight controls, fin/wing sizes, actuator sizes and actuator power sources. In essence, the different versions of #2 have become #3 below.

3. Multiple missiles with different roles This is where we are today, with separate RF missiles for BVR, IR missiles for WVR and anti-radiation missiles to suppress emitters. Targeting for each type and launch parameters for each type are unique and have to be trained for. To cover a wide variety of potential targets on a single mission requires at least 2 of each type carried by a single airplane (2 per target assures a high Pk). Carrying 6 missiles uses up a lot of hard points and limits your ability to carry other useful items such as bombs, fuel tanks, targeting pods, jamming pods, bombs and bombs (bombs help win wars). With multiple airplanes in a flight, the 3 missile types must be spread around. But care must be taken that all of one type are not placed on a single airplane. This is because modern tactics are flown in wide spread, mutually supporting formations with several miles between airplanes. With missiles of a type concentrated on a single airplane, your formation is at risk if a snap shot must be taken at a pop-up threat, but the appropriate missile is many miles away on the other side of your flight.

And also how useful are super long range BVR missiles? The answer is “How good is your targeting?” If you can target the enemy at extreme ranges, then it is beneficial to possess a missile that you can shoot at him before he can shoot at you. The first shot wins. Even if you don’t hit him, you force him to go defensive, spoiling his ability to shoot at you. Get him to bleed energy to escape the first missile and the second missile has a better probability of getting him. If your enemy is flying stealthy airplanes that you cannot detect until you are within 20 miles, then long-range super missiles are a wasted effort.