Luxtor wrote:
Well, the buyer of the 160 km range missile then should have the wherewithal to understand that point that you're not supposed to fire a 160 km range missile at a target that is 160 km away. But one can't make a blanket statement that at the extreme ranges the missile would not hit its target. There is a good chance it would hit it (if it has good sensor, guidance and flight control logic). But if aggressive evasive maneuvers are taken by the target aircraft along with decoy dispensing and ECM(jamming), the missile may very well run out of propellant from having to maneuver too much in a chase and not be successful.
Luxtorji of course a BVRAAM of range 160 km may hit a target. I am only talking about the probability of hitting a target at 160 km. That is all. I am sure that one can think of an infinite number of scenarios but let me just post 3 scenarios.
1) Target is 180 km away and heading directly at the BVRAAM firing aircraft. In this case it is theoretically possible to hit him at 160 km, but the missile will not be released because there is no guarantee that the intruder will obligingly keep flying towards the missile
2) Target is 160 km away - you have answered the question yourself. The missile will not be fired
3) The target is less than 160 km away - say 140 km. Here the missile might hit the target. But if the target aircraft detects missile launch and engages afterburner to turn away and run he may be able to cover the extra 21 km to put him out of range.
So we find that the probability of hitting an aircraft gets higher as the aircraft is closer with no guarantee of hitting any aircraft at any range. You yourself surely read the article I posted where the US is stated to call for positive BVR identification followed by the firing of at least 4 BVRAAMs to ensure a 90% kiil probability. Clearly hitting an intruder at 160 km with a 160 km range missile is asking for a near miracle. And that miracle is more likely to occur only when the missile is fired at a range of less than 160 km for reasons that you have yourself stated - i.e the missile will not be fired at any intruder at max range.
May I point out a curious fact in a rather cruel and unkind way? Nothing personal
In a video game where points are scored for hits, only the hits count. In real war, the hits don't count for much because they merely eliminate one intruder, it is the misses that are more important because the misses are the real killers who will come and take you out.
The only analogy is internal security. You may be able to stop 99 terror attack attempts but nobody gives you any credit because nobody sees or feels anything. But the one that gets through is the one that causes mayhem. Alam got personal glory, but Pakiland got ass-whupped. Germans aces got respect and glory, but Germany still lost. In both cases it was the ones they missed that got them.