I really would like to defend you, but there are people that use active radars. And no, not like you. These people just thump them in distance and reloop, which makes them unreachable.
In the hands of an experienced pilot the NB seems to hold it own in most any situation. Last match I played had a NB pilot go 62-2. I'd be interested to hear how DICE sees the NB within the larger Rock-Paper-Scissor balancing.
The radar missiles have a max travel distance of about 1 km and you get an incoming missile notification when it's within 400 m (max lockon distance), giving you more than enough time to deploy flares. And because it has a limited travel distance, you can sometimes simply outrun it.
Radar missiles are not an issue at all against nightbirds tho, considering how easily nightbirds can dodge them (probably a bug, rather than a feature). It's even less of a problem now that it's affected by below-radar.
You also have to be more accurate with the radar missiles after the latest patch - it's has a smaller auto lock window size, or whatever this is called.
