animelive
SENIOR MEMBER
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- Oct 14, 2012
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You are very right to say that BVR is not that dependable. When the BVR radar locks on an enemy plane to fire a missile, the latter's radar warns the pilot. A duly trained pilot will make only a small side sway or vertical maneuvering of his plane, it will fail the incoming missile to hit the target. More than 30 seconds are available for the enemy pilot, which is quite a long time for a speedy jet plane.
Back when it was to be tested first, it failed highly. BVR planes such as phantom were thought to be immune from dogfights, hence they did not have front cannons or machine guns but they faced heavy losses which changed the doctrine of BVR plane behavior. Introduced cannons and Improved maneuverability because even BVR in battle get drawn out to dogfights.