Good day,There are an awful lot of launchers in Battlefield 4, far more than there were in Battlefield 3, and each has their own advantages and disadvantages. In using one, you trade some properties, such as velocity and drop, for qualities like damage. Anyone who has experimented with the RPG-7V2 against the MK152 SMAW is familiar with thisdynamic, and it's a balancing game much in the same way that most everything in Battlefield is.There are three different kinds of launchers: guided launchers, dumb-fire launchers, and anti-air launchers. The FGM-172 SRAW is a special case, so we'll discuss it separately, because it's user-guided feature is capable of some unique maneuvers.The challenge with launchers is that their behavior is different against infantry, which has 100 health in normal game modes, and vehicles, which have various amounts of health, as well as angle modifiers for impact. Tanks, for example, have 1000 health, jets and helicopters have 500, and transport helicopters have 700.The two guided launchers are the FGM-148 Javelin and the MBT LAW. The FGM-148 Javelin is capable of locking to any ground target, as well as laser-designated targets on both land and air, and the MBT LAW locks to its target in-flight. The problem with the Javelin is that lock must be maintained throughout its entire flight, which has the potential to leave you exposed to the vehicle you're targeting, though there is a trick to it.The LAW has an initial speed of 30 m/s and accelerates to its maximum speed of 150 m/s during flight. It does have some drop, as it is affected by gravity at an acceleration of 2.5 m/s. It has a maximum splash damage of 112, which falls off linearly from maximum damage at 0.35 meters to no damage at 4 meters from the blast. This means that, beyond 0.74 meters from the blast, infantry at full health will survive a hit from the LAW. The LAW also has a reasonably quick reload time of 3 seconds.There is also impact damage, which is the primary mechanism by which a launcher does damage to a vehicle. The LAW has an incredibly low impact damage of 37.5, which is obviously not enough to deal 21% damage to a tank. However, it locks onto its target and attacks from the top-down, which effects a damage multiplier that is yet unclear. Fortunately, it can be confidently said that the LAW will always deal 21% damage to a tank.The LAW's locking mechanism is incredibly forgiving. It actuates an instantaneous lock on a ground target when 15 meters away, and has an acceptance angle of 20 degrees. The rocket will actively search for targets within that 20 degree acceptance angle cone (a solid angle of 0.379 steradians), and, if that target is within that angle and 15 meters away, the rocket will do a 90-degree turn and hit it from the top. This basically means that you only have to aim in the general direction of a ground target to hit it.The LAW can also lock onto any laser-designated targets within 350 meters, and will accelerate to a maximum speed of 250 m/s (rather than 150) during its flight. The splash damage for laser-designated targets is 125, which falls to zero almost instantaneously at 4.5 meters. This means that it is more effective against infantry surrounding the designated target.The FGM-148 Javelin, on the other hand, can lock onto any ground target within 350 meters, or any laser-designated target within 500 meters. Again, it has an initial velocity of 50 m/s, but accelerates to 250 m/s whether or not the target is designated. If the target is undesignated, the splash damage is 112, whereas, if the target is designated, it deals 250 splash damage, falling off to zero in both cases almost instantly at 4.5 meters from the blast.The Javelin has, interestingly enough, zero impact damage, but always does 25% damage to tanks, and 50% to laser-designated tanks. This would imply that it does 500 damage to designated targets, but, counterintuitively, it only deals 91% damage to aircraft. Against undesignated targets, one must maintain the Javelin's lock through its entire flight, though it is fire-and-forget against laser-designated targets. However, because the Javelin always attacks top-down on designated targets, it is rarely going to hit something moving as quickly as an aircraft.There are only two rockets in this category, and they are far more straightforward than the guided rockets. The RPG-7V2 and the MK152 SMAW. With these two, the trade-off is between damage and accuracy, though you may find that the difference in damage between the RPG and SMAW is relatively minor compared to how quickly and accurately they fly.Both rockets, like the MBT LAW, have a splash damage of 112, which falls off linearly to zero between 0.35 and 4 meters from the blast. The RPG-7V2, however, has an initial velocity of 30 m/s and a maximum of 80 m/s, affected by gravity at a negative acceleration of 2.5 m/s, and with a reload time of 4.6 seconds. It has an impact damage of 225, which is, again, the primary mechanism of damage to vehicles, but the damage is subject to change given angle-of-impact modifiers (maximum damage when perpendicularly impacting a target) and side multipliers (significantly higher damage to the back of a tank than to the front).The MK152 SMAW distinguishes itself in that it has a minimum speed of 40 m/s, and accelerates to 100 m/s. What's more, it is only affected by gravity at a negative acceleration of 1.2 m/s, which means it not only moves 25% faster than a rocket from the RPG, but has less than half the drop. These features are traded for an impact damage of only 200 and a slightly longer reload time of 5 seconds. This damage is still a mere 11% less than that of the RPG, and you will find that both launchers will require five hits to destroy an undamaged tank, not considering damage multipliers.Though the matter is, as always, one of personal preference, the MK152 SMAW is unquestionably easier to use against distant and moving vehicles. If you are comfortable trading the 25 damage, it is definitely a worthwhile launcher.It is worth noting, as well, that both launchers have an arm time of 0.5 seconds. This means that they will not deal their maximum splash damage (impact damage is unaffected) until 0.5 into their flight. Until that time, the splash damage is reduced by half, meaning that infantry will survive anything but a direct hit.The two rockets in this category, the FIM-92 Stinger and the SA-18 IGLA, have interesting trade-offs. Both have an initial velocity of 20 m/s and a reload time of 3.6 seconds, but the FIM-92 Stinger accelerates to 250 m/s, and the SA-18 IGLA accelerates to 500 m/s, fully twice the speed of its American cousin. The Stinger has a locking range of 350 meters, while the IGLA has a locking range of 450 meters. Both of these rockets' effectiveness against air vehicles is defined by their impact damage, which is 225 in both cases. However, the trade-off is that the IGLA requires a constant lock to hit its target, while the Stinger is fire-and-forget. This makes the IGLA more effective against distant and fast-moving aircraft, while the Stinger can be used for closer defense against helicopters.The FGM-172 SRAW is a stranger beast than the other launchers. Used effectively, it's an incredibly lethal tool. If one tries to use it like any other launcher, however, it can be more of a liability than an asset. The SRAW can lock onto laser-designated targets, but, undesignated, has an initial velocity of 15 m/s and a maximum of 75 m/s. When designated, it accelerates instead to 250 m/s, and can lock onto any designated target within 350 meters of the user. In both cases, it has a splash damage of 112, which falls off to zero between 0.35 meters and 4 meters from the blast, and has a constant impact damage of 215. As with the dumb-fire launchers, the SRAW has an arm time of 0.5 seconds, and only deals half splash damage until half a second into its flight.The SRAW's unique property is that it must be guided by the user for its entire flight (except when fired at a laser-designated target). What's more, if an object comes between you and your target, the missile will veer off, seeking to redirect towards the new object, and likely not hit the target you were aiming for. However, this affords the SRAW a unique capability. A rocket fired towards the sky will continue in its original path, and the launcher can be reloaded, a second rocket fired, and both rockets will fly towards the new target marked by the user. This can be a catastrophic waste of two rockets if used improperly, but, with practice, one can bring two rockets crashing down on a tank at the same time.Additionally, because of the rocket's low velocity and guidance system, one can hit the back of a tank that is facing you. This is more challenging than it sounds, but, with two rockets, it allows one to instantly disable a tank. Using the SRAW in this way takes practice to master, but it is what makes the FGM-172 SRAW a uniquely capable launcher. For most, however, getting this to work reliably in the heat of a firefight is too much, and a guided launcher like the MBT LAW or a dumb-fire launcher like the MK152 SMAW is a much easier and safer choice.The issue of angle and side multipliers on tanks is a complicated one, with a lot of math involved, which we do not have the room to discuss here. We will discuss it in a later blog post, but, for now, we hope that we can at least elucidate for you the advantages and drawbacks of the various anti-tank and anti-air launchers.If you have any insights you would like to share, or would like to do further research on the topic, you can take a look at our forum , where we have discussed all of these things, or you can leave a comment below.V/RPepin the Short