I think in RL you would be more aware of friendlies locations while in flight so I support longer range on friendly cons tho no more than 5.
I say if we have to have icons..
lose the chess piece, make green text fro friendlies red for badguys. Lose the accurate ranges have them display >4k, >3k and then NOTHING under 1k. (lose ranges all together in scenarios or HA)
Oh yeah and of course we need colour controls for the icons, for all them colourblind folks..
AKSKurj