MIGleader said:
you can always bleed the missle, make it run out of fuel or outrun it by manuvewring.
Could work if you spot it and it is launched near the edge of its range. Although I somehow get the feeling you are not considering the impact of new seekers and other recent developments. It is not like you can stare at missle and do a last split second turn to fool it.
Think about it this: After the expanding their bvr missile the fighters are closing to launch wvr missiles. Provided that both parties are going for the kill the missile is likely to launched in frontal hemisphere. The closing speed is huge. In order to maintain lock on the missile will have to change its course relatively little at longer ranges = little speed and energy loss. To escape the fighter can try to manouver to maintain as big a displacement as possible relative to the tracetory of the incoming missile. Combined with good ircm this is probably the best chance . Since if the missile looses track even for a short moment, it will now have to do harder turn. If this happens when the missle is close it may not be able to reaquire even with a wide angle agile seeker. or turn tail and try to out run it which means turning loosing more speed in the process. All the time while the missile has reached it top speed of M3-4. No amount of jinking will fool a modern missile. Bleeding its speed works only if the motor already has burned out awhile ago and the missile is already fairly slow. You would now be in the "might get lucky zone" (which means the missile was less than optimally launched). Modern missiles like python do the hard costly manuovering immediatly after launch if launched at high off boresight angles which will not affect it its range so much and nowadays I think it even has a sustainer of sorts.
Today wvr is a different ball game compared to the olden days of tailchase aim-9b and the likes. If the missle is launched within parameters chance of escape by manuovering is slim at best unless you have some classy IRCM.
And the camo angle: In within VISUAL range combat obvioulsy anything messes with VISUALLY aquiring a target and correctly assesing its trajectory is going to affect the combat.
