Battlefield

[YorkshirePud82]

what do you folks think is the best countermeasure for air vehicles, be it chopper or jet?

• Flares - reloads at 11 sec

• ECM aka "Chaff" - quoted direct from BF wiki "The ECM lasts for five seconds, and requires 10 seconds before it can be reactivated, effectively it is only 5 seconds of recharge though"

• Fire Extinguisher (not really a countermeasure but included anyway) - 25 sec recharge

• Below Radar - which now works Huzzah! works after 3 secs at low altitude

ive used all but the fire extinguisher, personally i think its a bit suicidal flying around with something that you can only use once the crate is on fire, and even then it doesnt help if your knocked down to below 40% health and people are still engaging you. Still ive disabled jets and choppers and disengaged thinking they are finished only to find a minute later they are still bimbling about!

personally for me its a combo of flares and below radar dump flares and then hit the deck, easier in a jet but looks fun in a chopper

despite the wiki saying chaff reloads quicker it doesnt seemt that way in combat, i come accross a lot of chopper pilots dumping chaff like flares, sure it breaks my lock but i just wait for them to come out of the cloud of chaff and nail them.

[Mike939]

I use extinguishers, I've caught out a few people who didn't expect me to come back from the dead like that

[YorkshirePud82]

do you use it in conjuction with maintenence? i dont see any other way for it to be effective though, especially if people continue to engage, thats why i refuse to leave a target alone now until they either eject, i destroy them or they crash.

[LSD-39]

The ECM is very effective against SOFLAM, I spent hours targeting stuff for the laser medal and the guys with ECM were mostly untouchable, i'd routinely leave them alone and pick a different target. Especially on jets they're out of range before I can lock on again. From what I saw on the ground the ECM was a clear winner but I haven't tried it myself in the air.
Dumping flares also breaks my SOFLAM lock, but its only about 2 seconds before I can paint the target again - a lot faster than his flares re-charge. Most of my laser assists were on choppers using flares. I avoided painting tanks with the gadget, they tend to stop and destroy the SOFLAM

[Mike939]

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YorkshirePud82 wrote:

do you use it in conjuction with maintenence? i dont see any other way for it to be effective though, especially if people continue to engage, thats why i refuse to leave a target alone now until they either eject, i destroy them or they crash.

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Nope no maintenence, not using air radar is just stupid unless you are up against somebody who is crap. 

It gets you back up to 35% health so thats enough to last a few more seconds until the rest of your health regens. Most people do the big looping thing to get enemies and it's so easy to counter when you know how I usualy get them with just that 35 left.

[LSD-39]

There's also a massive blind spot on the SOFLAM directly above it like a cone stretching up into the sky, it can't look straight up, so flying above it in a chopper might buy you some time. The CITV station in the MBT looks up higher though and tracks around the sky much faster.

[Mr_Inconspicous]

ECM for me.

Personally I think its the best as:

• Flares are bugged against laser designated weapons. Sometimes they just don't work
• ECM will break lock unlike flares
• Continues to jam for 5 seconds
• The enemy has just 5 seconds to re acquire lock before you can jam again (as it recharges whilst active)
• If they do lock and fire the chaff cloud can still counter missiles that have been fired

Love it in the Scouts when people come up behind me. Beeep beeeep beeeeep " I don't think so" *ECM* spin round, then depending on the distance miniguns or designate them myself, they panic and flare too soon KABOOOM

[YorkshirePud82]

interesting video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX_50yKynMA

i might give the chaff a go tonight. seems to me that Chaff is useless for jets. The speed and agility of a jet should allow you to escape most of the time if you dump flares

chopper i can see where ECM seems better. ill give it a go

[tricky201]

My counter measures are ditch and jump out

I've just started to actually get some sort of control of the heli's.  Then people start shooting at me and it all goes wrong!!

[BigMoab]

I use ECM, effective and has a fast reload. Never used extinguishers and never used below radar, never needed them.