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How to beat SAM lock-ons and use flares in Wardogs

Talons, CIWS and shoulder-launched missiles are what end most flights. Height is the first defence, flare timing the second.

Updated 2026-09-28

The threats

Stay under the lock line

Your Chopper Pilot's flare tutorial says lock-ons only work when you are above about 30 m above ground (the AGL reading at the bottom of the HUD). He cruises at 40 to 60 m, because trees make 30 m impractical, and dives below 30 m the moment he hears a lock. Hieb and OneTaps agree that low flight is the answer to infrared missiles. The trainer's drill uses a stricter 12 m line, so if you can beat it there you have margin in the game.

When to fire flares

  1. Learn the two tones: intermittent beeping means you are being locked; a steady tone means you are locked and a missile can fire or is in the air.
  2. On a lock, dive below the lock height.
  3. If the tone stops, nothing was fired. If a steady tone continues while you are low, a missile is in flight: wait about half a second to a second, then flare (Your Chopper Pilot).
  4. If you can see the missile, flare when it is one to two seconds from you (Hieb).

Do not flare pre-emptively. Hieb explains that a patient shooter waits out your flare cooldown and then fires, so one launcher is survivable and a coordinated pair can kill you. OneTaps likewise waits until the tone has run for a couple of seconds. Carry spares: Your Chopper Pilot gives the Little Bird's flare limit as 9 and the Lakota's as 20, at $750 each, and Hieb says never to fly with just one.

Killing the site

Hieb's method against a Talon or CIWS: kill the operator. Approach behind terrain or trees, pop up fast, and fly overhead, where neither system can aim straight up, then circle-strafe inside that cone. Note which way the CIWS laptop faces and come from behind it. Unfinished buildings have far less health, so kill them early.

The drill

Fly the route to the end pad while a SAM radar sweeps the valley. It locks on to anything more than 12 m above the ground, and a 3 s lock launches a missile. Hills come on for this one. Crests are where you get caught: climb just enough to clear them and get back down on the far side. A brief pop-up is survivable because the lock bleeds away once you are back under the line.

Fly the under the radar drill All drills

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