How to counter a jet-sniping attack helicopter?

Question

I was playing Conquest at Kharg Island, where my jet repeatedly got shot out of the sky by a hovering Viper attack helicopter with heatseekers. Whenever I tried to take it out, it would usually lock and fire at me before I could destroy it. If it didn't destroy me on the first try, it would just spin around and finish me off before I can loop back.

I eventually destroyed it a few times by kamikaze'ing into it, but that's hardly the most efficient technique.

How can I counter this tactic?

Answer 1

1 on 1: Heli's dont stand a chance against a good jet pilot.

A few (generalised) tips for taking out choppers however:

It can't shoot you if it can't see you:

• If the pilot has to go nose up to get a shot at you, they are (or will be) moving backwards or downwards, and will avoid doing this for too long.
• The gunner also acts as lookout in a good pairing, but only has limited view upwards.

Know where it is:

• Dropping flares is far easier when you know how long the missile will take to get to you.
• Allows you to get longer gun-runs.
• Lets you know how far you have to run to lose the lock (Flares are valuable!)

Pick your moment to attack: If you get two or three hits on the heli, it knows your on to it, and will pull evasive maneuvers. Watch the pilot as he turns to pull a straight run against a target, close in then land as much of a cannon run as you can. One full burst of cannon fire -will- destroy a chopper

Also:

• There is little point using AA missiles. Against a pilot-gunner combo, they are merely an annoyance, you may pull the occasional kill against a lone pilot... but it's far better to make yourself useful to groundforces.
• ECMs can be tricky to use, I still opt for flares, they are usefull for SOFLAM's and throwing Air-radars off, however they seem to have a much lower success rate.

As with the answer above, please don't kamikaze!

Answer 2

First of all, don't kamikaze into it. That's just poor sportsmanship. Your jet is much faster than the helo, so get away from it (out of range), then fly at it firing your cannons. If you have heat seekers, use those too but most jet pilots seem to be more adept at using cannons. Don't drop flares until you hear the missile launch tone, otherwise they'll just sit there and wait for you to drop flares, then fire their missiles and you'll be toast.

Answer 3

Based on my experience you need to keep several facts in mind and practise a lot.

How to get rid of Heatseekers:

• Your jet is way faster then the chopper so leave the lock-on-range, and you are save
• distract the lock-on by bringing buildings, gastanks or mountains between you and the chopper. You may need to fly very low, so practise this first ;)
• keep calm and wait: most people will get bored if they can't find you anymore. At Kharg just fly above the moutains out of the map (it's still inside the battlefield, but most chopperpilots won't fly there) and wait there a moment
• flare only if you hear the firing-sound of the missle and maybe start to fly really tight turns. You don't need flares to get rid of a missle. Fly close to the ground or other obstacles and change you directions very often. This will work for at least 60% of all missles

How to kill the chopper:

• one full run of your MG will kill the chopper, so prepare for a nice run, fire only if you are sure you can hit with almost every bullet. To avoid frontal-missle-attack go to the chopper from behind ;)
• use your team to kill or at least distract the pilot. Get some people with a stinger onto him, force him to fly low or use heatseekers yourself if you want
• instead of heatseekers take the rocket-pods, if you are more experienced with flying jets. So you are a good support for air-ground-attacks against tanks and stuff and the pods won't make any lock-on-warning (like the MG too). This allows you to fly silently towards your victim and kill him within seconds (same with other jets!)

overall you really need to get into your jet and what you can do with it. When you know how the vehicle reacts in several situations, you can perform much more to take down enemies and avoid attacks :)

Answer 4

As long as they're attacking throw flares. When they reload, take your heli to downside and attack them when they're trying to find you.

Answer 5

Go really high and attack him top down and fire into the cockpit: It's an assured kill. Remember that rocket pods are great against Helis.

Answer 6

If you don't know to fly a jet, train first on empty servers... I fly helicopters and can say that the best chopper pilot with the best amazing gunner has no chance against a vet jet pilot... So don't fly, train or die with honor: never jet ram...