Countermeasures

[flight1700 22]

I think it's about time we all sat down and discussed EXACTLY how countermeasures influence enemy missiles and radar.

Too long we've been kept guessing.

 

So, the idea is to post information here that is code-based; that is, not play-based (strategy involved in avoiding missiles in the game). I personally want the path and means to view the file that governs the missile guidance system.

 

I've had a decent start, I suppose. CmImmunity, a value of CfgAmmo's missiles, is a primary factor in determining if a missile hits a target. For an AMRAAM-D, the value is 0.98. But, what IS the value? I know a value of 1 means the missile will never be spoofed by countermeasures, but how is that value used in the code? What other factors are involved?

 

Any input would be great.

[drdetroit 77]

First, Amraams are radar guided, so you could dump 1000 flares and it wouldn't affect it's tracking, you would want to use chaff for radar guided (Amraam's are initially guided by the A/C radar lock, then go active within 5-miles or so).  Aim-9s are infrared, so you'd use flares for those types.  If a IR missile is launched (Russian R77 I believe), then you have no RWR warning and countermeasures are fairly useless...you have to basically beam the missile to break lock.

 

Anyhow, that's the basics of in-game strategy, not sure about game values, since I don't fly in Arma (DCS or BMS F-16 is more my taste for mil flight simming).

 

 

[joostsidy 682]

The countermeasures in Arma are a combination of chaff and flare, you can see it in the particle effect if you use countermeasures on the ground standing still.

[warlord554 2065]

Could have easily been polite and correct him if his info was misguided. Instead you were simply an a**hole

[kklownboy 43]

time to block you... meh

[drdetroit 77]

lol...alrighty then!  You're right, I was not referring to Arma3, a bit off your stated topic.  I've not flown in Arma, I assumed it had some semblance to a high fidelity modeled avionics...guess not.  My bad.

 

But damn, no need to be a complete punk about it.  And yes, you are a punk kid.

 

[flight1700 22]

Okay. After that MASSIVE derailment, we return to the topic.

 

Countermeasures. ARMA 3. Game mechanics.

 

Anyone have any insight?

 

From what I have observed after a few hours on the editor, this is what happens. Assume a radar guided missile is launched, let's assume an AMRAAM-D with a CMIMMUNITY value of 0.98. Each CM you launch has a 1 in 50 chance of stopping the missile from tracking you, due to the cmimmunity value, 0.98 out of 1.

Let's say you launch 50 CMs and the AMRAAM's lock breaks. (It probably won't be a perfect 50 CMs to break the lock, could be more or less, it's a random value.)

 

Great! However, there is still another issue. I BELIEVE, after much testing, that the missile will still guide to where it believes you are going, based on your aircraft's velocity and direction of acceleration at the time the missile's lock breaks.

Now, not being able to tell WHEN your CM has been effective is quite the problem. The missile will still trigger your RWR even after it has been spoofed by CM. This leads me to believe the only way to tell if the missile has lost track is to turn hard to see if the missile tries to lead you in your new vector. This isn't confirmed though, as I've never seen the missile NOT attempt to lead me. More testing is required.

 

So, in short, you're obviously at a disadvantage if you get launched at, both through the loss of CM and the loss of airspeed due to your (likely multiple) hard turns to attempt to steer out of the way of the (hopefully) spoofed missile.

 

A new question then. Since you're pretty much a fish in a barrel if you get launched at, what are the mechanics behind using CM to break the actual aircraft's lock on you, BEFORE the missile launch?

 

Seemingly launching CM in the "single" mode every 400 milliseconds will stop an enemy (tested against 7 Shikras attempting a lock at the same time) from locking you MOST OF the time. So, with the Black Wasp's 240 CMs, that gives you 48 seconds of near-invincibility, not counting the bursts you throw on the off chance you DO get locked. Plenty of time to do something about it.

 

I doubt your average nub in a jet will know all this and counter it.

 

Any thoughts? Different experiences in practice? I think I've solved it.

 

If anyone can find the ACTUAL VALUES FROM THE CONFIG for the time it takes an AMRAAM-D to lock a target, or the value for the chance a CM has to spoof an enemy jet's target locking system, that'd be great.

 

What I have is starting to look complete.

[flight1700 22]

Forum mod, mind removing posts #3 through #9 (and this post) from this thread? They are not relevant to the question.

[teabagginpeople 398]

There were discussions dedicated to this. explanations on exactly how the countermeasures work against the different threats.

 

  pretty much laid out all the information needed in detail .

 

 Your ironic mixture of condescending know it all attitude, while asking for information was..... how shall I put it nicely. Unnecessary.

 

Well even so I grant you the knowledge that the information is there.. somewhere. you just gotta go look. I can't spare you my  time to drop the links. You understand right?

 

The situation calls for it. 

[flight1700 22]

7 hours ago, teabagginpeople said:

There were discussions dedicated to this. explanations on exactly how the countermeasures work against the different threats.

 

  pretty much laid out all the information needed in detail .

 

 Your ironic mixture of condescending know it all attitude, while asking for information was..... how shall I put it nicely. Unnecessary.

 

Well even so I grant you the knowledge that the information is there.. somewhere. you just gotta go look. I can't spare you my  time to drop the links. You understand right?

 

The situation calls for it. 

Well, I didn't find what you describe, but it's definitely not from lack of trying. The closest thing I found post-JetsDLC (because countermeasures were reworked in the DLC) is this thread: https://forums.bistudio.com/forums/topic/140837-development-branch-changelog/?page=41#comment-3181917.

 

It's not very useful, but it is something. We'll link it here for future players to read.

 

The important parts are

• Tweaked: The locking duration is now 3s for IR missiles, 1.5s for Radar missiles and ~0s for LGBs 
• Tweaked: Resistance to countermeasures when locking has been decreased

which we already knew.

[flight1700 22]

14 hours ago, flight1700 said:

Forum mod, mind removing posts #3 through #9 (and this post) from this thread? They are not relevant to the question.

In addition to this request above, please delete all posts after the quoted message and lock the thread.

 

Seems I've arrived at my own answer, and I'd like to perserve the knowledge for future curious players.