vehicles should not be able to use weapons within the main base area.

something needs to be done though

Is it even their fault? Becaue let's be real, the maps are so small that sitting there is possible and strategically reasonable, even its scummy.

I think if the maps week bigger, it would force the AA out of their HQ to acquire range, and then aircraft would have more space to not get shot down and be able to maneuver.

It's a range issue that results from poor and small map design. 

These are what I think the factors are:

• HQ too close to play area.
• Play area not big enough to allow range differences and prevent spawn camping.

That's what I think the problem is. I dont think its using vehicles / equipment in the HQ area.

I think the most important aspect here is that the distance between the HQ and the combat area is larger. So yes, that must mean bigger maps. The C-RAM is excellent and if anything the HQ should have more defenses like that. Like you say, the enemy shouldn't easily be able to drive/fly into your HQ. It's the C-RAM scares those hostiles away

I do agree that the AA shouldn't be incentivized to use the C-RAM as protection. It should not be able to effectively stay in base. So there's two ways to go about it:

1. You remove the ability to be effective in base as an AA vehicle. Simply put, this just means some range limitations to the weapons of the AA that can only be overcome by driving into the combat area. You could use the Battlefield 4 system, where the AA does drastically more damage if it's actually close to the enemy.
2. You remove the ability to gain score and unlocks for any kills that are made in HQ.

The base AA protecting players from missiles is the problem. Let's not pretend like a team gets spawn camped every single game in Battlefield to warrant such an aggressive AA. Meanwhile every single game, now that the AA is so broken, there are people exploiting it. the only solution to this, that isn't a bandaid fix, would be to either remove the AA entirely or make it manned. Remove the automated aspect IMMEDIATELY.

Completely agree that something needs to be done about this. It is one of the most obnoxious and unfair things that people do. Imagine paying $70 to sit in spawn in an AA tank all game. It is definitely on DICE for allowing this to happen, but equally on the players for choosing to be this type of person.