Anyone know if there are any drawbacks to activating your infrared jammer before you would really need it? I mostly fly the SU-25T and I usually turn on the IR jammer soon after take off so I make sure I dont forget to turn it on later during the heat of combat.

I know that turning on ECM too early and leaving it on when you dont needed is not a good idea since it broadcasts your location to enemy sams and planes but is that really modelled in Lock On?

I believe that the IR jammer does not give your position away.

Right, I knew that much! It's only the ECM which can potentially give your position away. I was just wondering if maybe the infrared jammer could overheat and get damaged if you had it activated for a long period of time.

The way the 'Frog's IR jammer is described is it's some kind of pulsed IR flood light. A cessium lamp, rather than the laser 'disco ball' some other aircraft use. Since the Russians used a similar IR lamp, sans modulation, as a flood light for Gen-0 night vision equipment, I dont see it overheating from continuous use. I -do- see it lighting you up like a giant bullseye on IRST/EOS though, at least from behind.

I've never had the IR Jammer konk out on me during a flight. If it happens in real life, it certainly isn't modelled in-game!

The IR jammer does take several minutes to get up to temperature..I always turn it on after wheels up.

Is that true even in-game?

Yes - it also says so in the flight manual.

Mine is incorporated into my start-up routine macro, so its on from power-up to power-down every sortie.

Someone on ED said that the IR jammer is a on/off thing, meaning it doesn't take a few minutes to turn on.

Ah ok, I didn't know about taking time to heat up aspect of the IR jammer.

tum-te-tum....

I don't think IR sensor overheating nor is IR initiation time delay modeled.

I know this because in the Su-33 quick mission - you detect the Viking almost instantly (with radar and IR). Plus, you can tack an aircraft with IR indefinitely.

I read that the RL IR Jammer takes about 5 minutes to warm up.
But a ED programmer or tester said that the in-game IR Jammer activates instantly and the warm-up period is not modelled in Flaming Cliffs Su-25T.

Thanks for all the info guys. Much appreciated.