*** Posted by FAULKEN ***
At what range does the seeker head go active? To date my 120 tactics in F4 have been to acquire - lock - fire 120 - and then remain locked until the missle hits the target or over shoots. Very dangerous at under 20 miles to target. I would like to use multiple target/multiple launch tactics, but will need the info above to use it effectively?

*** Posted by Rapier ***
Hi Faulken,

Why are you waiting until the missle hit's the target? When you get lock, fire and break away with some chaff and lock up another target. The AIM120 is a fantastic missle it has an impressive hit ratio. It will active about 1/4 of the distance to target after it is launched. I think they have modeled this missle in F4 very well to the real thing, the only thing that is different is the range at which it can be fired. I am sure it's alot more then what it say's in the book. I have had some excellent kill ratio's with this missle.

Regards

Rapier

*** Posted by FAULKEN ***
I have been waiting because I was unclear as to when the seeker head went active and wanted to ensure a good kill on the bandit. Is it a set distance from the target, like say 10nm or is it truely 1/4 the distance from the time it leaves the rail??

[Hi Faulken,

Why are you waiting until the missle hit's the target? When you get lock, fire and break away with some chaff and lock up another target. The AIM120 is a fantastic missle it has an impressive hit ratio. It will active about 1/4 of the distance to target after it is launched. I think they have modeled this missle in F4 very well to the real thing, the only thing that is different is the range at which it can be fired. I am sure it's alot more then what it say's in the book. I have had some excellent kill ratio's with this missle.

Regards

Rapier
]

*** Posted by Rapier ***
Hi,
I cannot tell you the real distance when it goes active because it's classified I dont know, sorry, but the AMRAAM (so they say) has a maximum kill range of 31 miles. I would judge it to be that kind of distance so the pilot does'nt have to hang around. You see the AMRAAM is a "Fire & Forget" missle, which means it will take care of itself once it's launched. 1/4 distance it may go active or it may go active as it get's close to the target but the idea of keeping your radar cone pointing at the target gives the enemy an excellent chance also of him firing a missle back at you before trying to evade your missle. I have also kept my radar cone on the target but I would count to 5 or 6 after you have launched and then turn with 90^ with chaff. Although the missle's going pretty fast and will cover the sky in no time it will still take the enemy no time to lock you up as well. Dont be fooled by the "Fire & Forget" slogan, active guided missles like this have been know to be spoofed by chaff and have also been know to loose their target's while trying to track them.

Regards

Rapier

[I have been waiting because I was unclear as to when the seeker head went active and wanted to ensure a good kill on the bandit. Is it a set distance from the target, like say 10nm or is it truely 1/4 the distance from the time it leaves the rail??]

*** Posted by TIGER ***
[Hi,
I cannot tell you the real distance when it goes active because it's classified I dont know, sorry, but the AMRAAM (so they say) has a maximum kill range of 31 miles. I would judge it to be that kind of distance so the pilot does'nt have to hang around. You see the AMRAAM is a "Fire & Forget" missle, which means it will take care of itself once it's launched. 1/4 distance it may go active or it may go active as it get's close to the target but the idea of keeping your radar cone pointing at the target gives the enemy an excellent chance also of him firing a missle back at you before trying to evade your missle. I have also kept my radar cone on the target but I would count to 5 or 6 after you have launched and then turn with 90^ with chaff. Although the missle's going pretty fast and will cover the sky in no time it will still take the enemy no time to lock you up as well. Dont be fooled by the "Fire & Forget" slogan, active guided missles like this have been know to be spoofed by chaff and have also been know to loose their target's while trying to track them.

Regards

Rapier

I have been waiting because I was unclear as to when the seeker head went active and wanted to ensure a good kill on the bandit. Is it a set distance from the target, like say 10nm or is it truely 1/4 the distance from the time it leaves the rail??

]
Hi Faulken
The AIM-120 AMRAAM becomes active at about 1/2 distance from the plane and it's target.
Let's say you are about 10 miles from the target and you launch an 120.
The 120 will be active first fraction of a second. At about 50 miles from the target the 120 will be active in aprox 1 minute.
Tiger

*** Posted by FAULKEN ***
Thanks Tiger

OK time to brush up on those Math skills....If an Aim-120 leaves the F-16's furthest most rail at 2:30 pm while the F-16 is traveling at 517 nm/h, and reaches a top cruising speed of Mach 2.14 in 21 seconds. How long will it take it the 120 to hit a Mig-27 located 28 miles from the F-16 at the time of launch and traveling 375 nm/h with an aspect angle of......

Oh well, I'll just pickle it off and count to 8 mississippi!!!!!!
[Hi,
I cannot tell you the real distance when it goes active because it's classified I dont know, sorry, but the AMRAAM (so they say) has a maximum kill range of 31 miles. I would judge it to be that kind of distance so the pilot does'nt have to hang around. You see the AMRAAM is a "Fire & Forget" missle, which means it will take care of itself once it's launched. 1/4 distance it may go active or it may go active as it get's close to the target but the idea of keeping your radar cone pointing at the target gives the enemy an excellent chance also of him firing a missle back at you before trying to evade your missle. I have also kept my radar cone on the target but I would count to 5 or 6 after you have launched and then turn with 90^ with chaff. Although the missle's going pretty fast and will cover the sky in no time it will still take the enemy no time to lock you up as well. Dont be fooled by the "Fire & Forget" slogan, active guided missles like this have been know to be spoofed by chaff and have also been know to loose their target's while trying to track them.

Regards

Rapier

I have been waiting because I was unclear as to when the seeker head went active and wanted to ensure a good kill on the bandit. Is it a set distance from the target, like say 10nm or is it truely 1/4 the distance from the time it leaves the rail??


Hi Faulken
The AIM-120 AMRAAM becomes active at about 1/2 distance from the plane and it's target.
Let's say you are about 10 miles from the target and you launch an 120.
The 120 will be active first fraction of a second. At about 50 miles from the target the 120 will be active in aprox 1 minute.
Tiger
]

*** Posted by run ***
Hi guys

Just to straigthen the conversation out a bit:

The distance that the AMRAAM goes active on is dependent on when the radar in the missile is able to get a good lock. This means that the distance in question is mostly a missile-to-target distance and it doesn't have much to do with how far out it is fired.

run

*** Posted by FAULKEN ***
Run,

Is there any type of indication given to the pilot in the cockpit that tells him/her the 120 is now active and can continue without my radar lock, thus allowing me to move to the next target?

[Hi guys

Just to straigthen the conversation out a bit:

The distance that the AMRAAM goes active on is dependent on when the radar in the missile is able to get a good lock. This means that the distance in question is mostly a missile-to-target distance and it doesn't have much to do with how far out it is fired.

run ]

*** Posted by Rapier ***
Sorry just to add one small note,
Run is rught when he say's that it does deppend on the distance to target and a good lock on the target. When you do this Faulken and you get the shoot cue (or by studying the weapon range bar in the right side of the HUD) you will know when best to fire the missle. You can then turn and engage another target if you wish and let the 1st missle hit the target.

[Hi guys

Just to straigthen the conversation out a bit:

The distance that the AMRAAM goes active on is dependent on when the radar in the missile is able to get a good lock. This means that the distance in question is mostly a missile-to-target distance and it doesn't have much to do with how far out it is fired.

run ]

*** Posted by run ***
yes

[Run,

Is there any type of indication given to the pilot in the cockpit that tells him/her the 120 is now active and can continue without my radar lock, thus allowing me to move to the next target?

]

*** Posted by Rapier ***
Hi Faulken,

If you would like to know when the AIM-120 goes autonomous it's easy enough to know when firing one from the F-16. Apparently it's supposed to look spectacular from the cockpit of a real aircraft. Anyway I'll explain to you how it works.

When you fire the AIM-120 at a target you will notice a countdown marker that will appear directly underneath the DLZ bracket (DLZ = "Dynamic Launch Zone", the range between Rmax & Rmin). You can test this in the F4 training mission if you like which deals with specifically firing the AIM-120. The countdown marker time is displayed on the HUD in 2 different ways depending on if the missle is autonomous or not.

When the letter "A" is displayed on the countdown underneath the DLZ bracket and marker, it is counting down the seconds it will take for the missle to go autonomous. After the "A" time counts down to zero, the missle will be autonomous without help from the F-16, leaving you to engage a second target or break away. When the "A" time does get to zero, a new type of countdown will appear also using seconds. The new countdown starts with a "T" replacing the "A". When the "T" appears it means that the missle is now ACTIVE and PURSUING the target. The time that is displayed now next to the "T" is the time to missle impact or time to "Target". It is important to note that when the "T" is displayed in the "HUD", you can break lock on the target and engage another. So "A" means countdown time before the missle goes autonomous, and "T" means how long it will take the missle to impact the Target, at this time the missle is autonomous.

The HUD symbology will look something like this:

Rmax1_____ _ ______ Rmax2
¦ ¦
¦ ¦
¦ ¦
¦ ¦
¦_¦ ______ Rmin1
[_] ______ Rmin2

--->A18 <---- 18 seconds to go autonomous.
¦
¦
----T12 <---- 12 seconds to impact point. "T" will replace time "A" when the missle is autonomous.

If you shoot another AIM-120 missle you will notice another set of timing numbers will appear in the HUD. The bottom readout shows the missle currently in flight while the top readout will show the next missle which is about to be fired, if you need to engage another target. Your "HUD" will never show information about two AIM-120 missles in flight because it would be difficult for the pilto to distinguish which missle is tracking which target.

I hope this helps you Faulken, I thought you had to know the sim inside out to be a beta-tester? Ahh well maybe they are pestering you about this. Good Luck anyway and practice those "Slammer" skill's.

Kind Regards

Rapier