Is it actually practical to use laser beam riding missile to intercept SAM?

[Ronny]

So I think pretty much everyone here have heard of Warthunder, it basically a game/simulation where they try replice the performance of real life military equipment as close as possible using trust worthy source such as flight manual.
Anyway, in Warthunder, if you fly a Ka-50/52 then you can equipped your helicopter with Vikhr missile and use it to intercept SAM.
Basically like the video below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/10r5vj1/vikhr_missile_this_sam_interceptor_agm_and_aam

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/10r5vj1/vikhr_missile_this_sam_interceptor_agm_and_aam/

According to the theory in the game:
The reason this work is because Vikhr is a laser beam riding missile, so it will basically fly toward the direction that you point your laser grid at whether it is a tank, a helicopter, a jet fighter , a missile..etc. It does not need to rely on the small seeker on the missile to pick up target, as long as your thermal system can see the target, you can point your missile at that threat and launch


Another thing that make it work is the fact that vikhr has a proximity fuse, and SAM also have proximity fuse, so they doesn’t need to make direct contact to trigger an explosion. Furthermore, unlike common intercept of fast target where you need to predict the future location of target, in this case, the SAM will fly directly at the helicopter so vkhir only need to fly directly at that direction.
I know it just a game and this sound insane, basically too good to be true but the logic seem pretty sound.
So, could this work in real life? And if not then why not?

 

[Dilandu]

So, could this work in real life? And if not then why not?

It could work; it's just not really practical due to the very tight fire control requirements. SAM's are quite fast and relatively small and sturdy targets. To intercept them, the fire control system must lock on, track the missile and calculate interception point VERY fast, so the anti-missile missile would have time to intercept SAM at safe distance from your plane/helicopter. And since SAM are small and sturdy (they need to be, so they could survive high-g maneuvers), they aren't easy to knock out.

P.S. I strongly suspect this thread should be in another section of forum.

 

[Ronny]

It could work; it's just not really practical due to the very tight fire control requirements. SAM's are quite fast and relatively small and sturdy targets. To intercept them, the fire control system must lock on, track the missile and calculate interception point VERY fast, so the anti-missile missile would have time to intercept SAM at safe distance from your plane/helicopter. And since SAM are small and sturdy (they need to be, so they could survive high-g maneuvers), they aren't easy to knock out.

This more or less rely on the fact that SAM have proximity fuse, so technically, they will just detonate themself if they meet something close (or at least that how I understand it)

 

[Dilandu]

This more or less rely on the fact that SAM have proximity fuse, so technically, they will just detonate themself if they meet something close (or at least that how I understand it)

Modern proximity fuzes are smart, and usually activates only on terminal approach (to avoid them being jammed). Also, I'm not sure that your anti-missile missile would be large enough for proximity fuze to react on it.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Modern proximity fuzes are smart, and usually activates only on terminal approach (to avoid them being jammed). Also, I'm not sure that your anti-missile missile would be large enough for proximity fuze to react on it.

In the current situation, the attack is a hundred times cheaper than the defense.

It will be necessary to face attacks carried out by hundreds of missiles, the biggest problem for the defender will be to differentiate between the remains of the first explosions and the missiles that arrive later. An interesting strategy will be for the enemy to launch a first salvo of missiles containing some kind of chaff that affects the ability to discriminate of the proximity fuses of the defense missiles.

 

[Vanessa1402]

Modern proximity fuzes are smart, and usually activates only on terminal approach (to avoid them being jammed). Also, I'm not sure that your anti-missile missile would be large enough for proximity fuze to react on it.

To be fair, vikhr max range when launched from helicopter is only 8 km, that should be the terminal stage for most anti air missiles. In my opinion, the proximity fuse should be activated by then. But a Mach 3 missile only need 8 second to fly 8 km, even if this is possible, it is still very dangerous and pilot has very small margin for error