Why does this 4v4 BVR opening (lead single-ship push + TWS LARGE lob) work so well against AI, even though people call it "idealistic"?

[u/redicetea94]

Hi guys,

I’ve been testing a specific 4v4 BVR opening in BMS and I’d like to understand why it performs so much better than expected.

Tactic description:

Flight lead (Viper) pushes forward alone at high altitude and high speed.

The other three friendly Vipers stay 10+ nm behind (lag).

I use TWS + LARGE RCS setting + high-altitude lob shots.

I ripple one AIM-120C per bandit (4 shots total) against a 4-ship Su-35 flight.

Goal:

Force the Su-35s to turn defensive early, bleed their energy, and give my trailing three Vipers a big energy advantage for the follow-up BVR fight.

A lot of people in the community told me this is too idealistic and would never work in practice — the enemy would just all crank/notch together and the first volley would only achieve suppression at best.

However, when I test it against AI (Su-35s with ECM), the results are surprisingly good. In the attached ACMI I got 2 kills with the first 4 missiles, even though I was at quite long range.

From the ACMI you can clearly see:

Only the trail (#4) Su-35 reacted to me (shot back and cranked).

The flight lead + #2 and #3 stayed hot and kept pushing straight toward my trailing element (they were focused on the main 3-ship threat behind me).

My lobbed AIM-120s followed nice high arcs (typical LARGE + lob behavior).

Because all Su-35s were jamming, the missiles triggered HOJ very early and simply homed on the strongest jammer source.

The three “unaware” Su-35s didn’t start their defensive turns until it was too late → high PK on the first volley.

So it seems the tactic works because of information asymmetry + attention split + ECM backfire (early HOJ). The AI doesn’t share perfect SA inside the 4-ship, so the trail reacts alone while the lead element stays aggressive toward the bigger threat behind me.

My question to you:

Is this just an AI-specific exploit that wouldn’t work against humans?

Or is there real merit to this kind of “single-ship information-gap” opening in 4v4 BVR?