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I can just see it now...some guy in say a Mig is like "LOL I'm going to own this guy...I'll sneek up on him from 6 o'clock low" but the pilot in the F-35 is like *sigh* "piece of cake"...I hope things like this aren't going to be implimented in sims any time soon lol...otherwise my days of sneeking up on unsuspecting aircraft in Falcon 4.0 are over!
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Actually, the MiG-29 and Su-27 have both had helmet-mounted off-boresight targeting capability for years, long before comparable Western aircraft had it, although their helmet system was pretty heavy. Again this points up the fact that most Westerners simply assume Russian stuff is poor quality without actually knowing anything about it. Similarly, Russian aircraft also feature vastly superior IR detection systems too, not to mention better ejection seats (I have in fact got most of the parts from the MiG-29 ejector seat that was used at a UK airshow some years ago right next to me as I'm typing this!) and numerous other features that analysts often dismiss or just don't even bother to find out about.
Helmet-mounted targeting was in fact fitted onto East German MiG-29s before the re-unification of Germany took place, which gives you some idea of how widespread the technology was in Soviet states and how long they've had it in large-scale use. It proved a definite advantage when they indulged in dissimilar combat training versus Dutch F-16s, but it's not the be all and end all, as you need a missile that can make the turn too, and despite all that Hollywood bollocks you see in rubbish like Top Gun and Behind Enemy Lines etc, most short range missiles actually burn all their fuel up in less than ten seconds (often as little as four seconds), which means they can't make huge amounts of turns without bleeding energy and speed, so you can't just look over your shoulder and make a shot. Probably the biggest advantage Western aircraft have is better IR suppression and less smoky exhausts, making them tougher to pick up visually.
Chock