AI Air Defense

[Wdll]

In real life? If you are talking about losses of American aircraft against third world countries, yes. If you search for results from other countries, then the losses are quite high for both, if they have aircraft. Iraq vs Iran, and India vs Pakistan for one. Or even the wars with/against Israel. Air defenses work when they exist and are part of a proper network and the "defender" is willing to use them instead of saving them. (like what Serbia did)

The thing with USA battles is they are clever and they do not initiate fights with forces they know they are going to have problems with, ie loss of aircraft. Even Iran (if there is a war with Iran) is doubtful if they will manage to pose much problem since while they have a few good systems, they are too few for the land/installations they need to cover and they do not actually cover each other. They are deployed in the same moronic(?) way Iraq did. Too spread out with not enough radars and networking between installations and systems without backups. It's almost like the air defenses are part of a Feudal system, if that makes any sense. lol

When the defender has fewer top quality systems than 3 attacker planes have missiles for, then you know they are in trouble.

And that's what the AI tries to do (personal guess of course). You need to have a too large number of them or else it's like you have nothing.

[whdonnelly]

The last example was Libya, where the Libyan air defense network was pounded by Tomahawk missiles from subs before any bombing campaign was started. Apparently even less than modern networks are considered too great of a risk for aircraft alone to deal with. So perhaps the game is reflecting what could happen if a defender is waiting, as in the case of the VC ambushes of American air assaults....

[gila]

Originally Posted by Wdll

You need to have a too large number of them or else it's like you have nothing.

A good case for not bothering using fixed wing eh?

I mean if you spend the scads of points on them and they don't produce much for thier high cost, then you lost pt.s you could've spent on other assets.

Helo's are another matter,give me an Cobra or Apache with tows and i can garrante there be burning vehicles.