Aircraft Flares

[Hypevosa]

Here's how I feel it should work.

Pilots have a switch. Said switch has 2 settings - chaff and flares.

People using missile launchers have 3 options, heat seeking, radar guided, laser guided.

When the pilot receives the warning they've incoming missiles, they'll need to read the HUD to note if it's a Radar or an infrared lock. Chaff will cause the Radar guided missiles to fly off target, and the Flares will cause the heat seeking missiles to fly off target, as in real life. This is 100% effective though, but now any time you have a group of soldiers using different rocket launchers to assault the same bird, that squad will be better off as long as the pilot doesn't have a good wingman who can help cover the other type of countermeasure.

The third option puts the kill strictly in the hands of the operator. The laser guided missile requires you keep the laser painting the target. If you're not painting something, the missile just flies straight like a dumbfire rocket, and if it can't see the laser, it won't hit that target. So now you have to keep the laser on the fast moving fighter plane of you want the missile to hit. Assuming the thing doesn't have the best zoom in the world, this would actually be a feat of considerable skill.

Problem solved.