I think this may be largely due to players not realizing that they're using it incorrectly. I keep seeing players firing the airburst rockets either directly at the ground toward enemies, or in a straight line in front of them, as they would with any other rocket launcher. I've found that aiming it above enemy groups seems to work best, as this avoids premature detonations by keeping the rocket further away from terrain and foliage, and makes much better use of the rocket's actual airburst AOE range.
In my experience, if you aim it a good 10-15 feet above your enemies' heads, it should detonate more reliably where you're expecting it to. The detonation range is pretty wide for terrain, but it's even wider for enemy units, so you can afford to aim it a bit higher than you might expect. Keep the rocket as far away from the ground as possible, and your teammates' limbs won't be liberated from their torsos quite as frequently.
I also don't recommend ever firing it at any targets 50 meters and under. The AOE of the airburst, itself, isn't 50m, but by the time the rocket's close enough to detect an enemy and detonate, it isn't far enough away from you yet to be safe, so you'll usually get caught in the blast.
I'm hoping that the updated version we should be getting next week includes a minimum priming distance before it can prox-detonate. Just making it so that the detection doesn't activate for like 10 meters or something would help out tremendously with the friendly fire incidents.
You're right but it could be better designed to communicate this.
It should have been closer to a Javelin missile system where the missile is oriented at a higher angle than the aiming module. So if you're aiming parallel to the ground, the missile shoots out at a positive angle.
Yeah, that's what I do but holy crap that proximity detonation as you alluded to is just bonkers inconsistent. Way to many times trying to soften up a base only for it to explode in my and my teammates face.