Air-To-Air Arrow IV Bomb

[DarkJaguar]

Does this "bomb" only function against targets that are not tailing you?  The only condition mentioned appears to be "This attack may be attempted against targets in the Medium range bracket or closer" (AS Pg. 78).

[Weirdo]

Logic says that it is indeed difficult to use an air to air missile against something behind you.

[Empyrus]

Logic says that it is indeed difficult to use an air to air missile against something behind you.

"Off-boresight" systems are evidently LosTech in BattleTech universe.  ;)

[DarkJaguar]

Logic says that it is indeed difficult to use an air to air missile against something behind you.

You say that, but the AIM-9X sidewinder is a real life missile that can do just that, over 1000 years before the current timeline, so...

[Empyrus]

You say that, but the AIM-9X sidewinder is a real life missile that can do just that, over 1000 years before the current timeline, so...

BattleTech rules rarely follow real life. There are a lot of things that can be done IRL that can't be done in BT. I don't recommend trying to apply real life logic to BT. Even though there are sorely missed things thanks this.

[DarkJaguar]

BattleTech rules rarely follow real life. There are a lot of things that can be done IRL that can't be done in BT. I don't recommend trying to apply real life logic to BT. Even though there are sorely missed things thanks this.

Oh for sure, but in this instance, when a statement is proceeded by "Logic says...", it bears mentioning that there's a real life example of just such a thing, so maybe my question is just a TEENSY bit valid.

In any case, Air-to-Air attacks allow targeting stuff that's tailing you via REAR special ability
"Airborne Units: The same rules apply for fighter units as for ground units. However, a fighter may only use its rear-facing weapons against units that are specifically tailing them (see pp. 58-60), and are within range of its rear weapons. Thus, if a fighter has rear-firing weapons that only delivers damage to the Short range bracket, it may only use these weapons against tailing enemies at Short range."
So I figured it was worth asking if this was possible following these rules, since the Air-to-Air Arrow IV's make no mention of firing arc, only that the target must be medium or closer.

[Scotty]

BattleTech's rules across all editions and versions describe what you can do, not what you can't do.  If they attempted the latter, all of the rulebooks would be 1500 pages long and utterly uneditable messes.

If something does not explicitly say you can fire outside of the normal firing arc, then it cannot.  Air-to-Air Arrow IV does not explicitly say you can fire outside of the normal firing arc, so it cannot.

[nckestrel]

*nods along with Scotty*

[Weirdo]

*nods with them, if off-beat*

I could say that the "If the rules don't say you can, you can't" bit was the logic I was talking about, but I'll be honest, I'd completely forgotten about off-axis real-world missiles.