Bombs!

This went a little unnoticed with the last update, but we can drop bombs now. The SAB-100 illumination bomb and FAB-100, FAB-250 and FAB-500 general purpose bombs are available.

In order to use them, first do what you do to arm any weapon:

1. Turn on the weapon systems circuit breakers (RCTRL + RSHIFT 1 through 3).

2. Turn on the РС ГУВ ВКЛ – ВЫКЛ (RS/GUV Arm) switch (P).

3. Turn on the big safety switch over the commander's seat (LALT + S).

And now focus on the panel just above the navigator's instrument panel. It has a big rotary switch for selecting armament variants (with a "cheat sheet" next to it). On the left and right there are two up-down toggle switches. The one on the right is some heater switch and the one on the left is the bombs arming switch.

4. Set the proper variant with the rotary switch (I don't think it's necessary, but why not?)

5. Arm the bombs with the left switch.

Bombs are now ready to go. Drop them (and miss horribly, cause there's no way to aim them) with the B key by default. You may need to delete your keyboard.lua in the Saved Games folder to make the bombs trigger work, but aren't we used to that by now? ;)

And another thing. In one of my flights, I bombed some targets, returned to base and without putting on the safeties, asked the ground crew to rearm me. During the process one of the bombs fell off the pylon and blew me to pieces. First death in the Mi-8, damn it! :( Anyway, I don't know if it's a bug or a feature, but remember to turn on the safeties when you rearm.

I was wondering about this, thanks for posting. Deleting the keyboard.lua worked for me.

Actually, the setting of the "pod variant" rotary switch matters. Setting "II" is if you have six bombs loaded, there are other positions for a mixture of bombs and rockets, etc. I actually managed to land a FAB-500 close enough to a vehicle to destroy it.

Hover and release. :)

And pray his fellow tank doesn't punch a hole in you the size of texas.

I'm not a proponent of self fragmentation....

It's definitely important to pay attention to altitude and speed when releasing bombs. This is how I learned that severe tire damage is in fact modeled in DCS: Mi-8MTV2. :D

Interesting! Thanks!

But one question regarding:

It has a big rotary switch for selecting armament variants (with a "cheat sheet" next to it).

What are these different variants? I stared occassionally at that cheat sheet, but couln't figure out what the variants mean or even what the different icons mean.

Pod variants - what is what?

My guess is:

1) 6x B-8V20A

2) 6x bombs

3) 4x bombs + 2x B-8V20A

4) 2x UPK + 2x B-8V20A

5) 2x UPK + 2x bombs

And the GUV pods have a separate position altogether.

From these variants and the 1-2-5-6/AUTO/3-4 switch I'm assuming you're supposed to have a single type of armament on hardpoints 1, 2, 5, 6 and a single type of armament on points 3 and 4. That would be similar to the MiG-29. But that's just my guess, I don't really have the time to go dig through manuals...

My guess is:

1) 6x B-8V20A

2) 6x bombs

3) 4x bombs + 2x B-8V20A

4) 2x UPK + 2x B-8V20A

5) 2x UPK + 2x bombs

And the GUV pods have a separate position altogether.

 

From these variants and the 1-2-5-6/AUTO/3-4 switch I'm assuming you're supposed to have a single type of armament on hardpoints 1, 2, 5, 6 and a single type of armament on points 3 and 4. That would be similar to the MiG-29. But that's just my guess, I don't really have the time to go dig through manuals...

Thanks ... I try to get my head around it ... :o)

GUV pods separate, by using the GUN position on the rotary switch - would makes sense. Hrm, one can see that the weapons are a "add-on" to this transport helo ...

Hrm, what about the variant "rockets / UPK / rockets"? Mountable and usable, but not a "legal" variant according to the chart?

That's actually a good point, Flagrum.

I'm under the impression that, the cheat-sheet is more of a guideline than a loadout rule-set.

From what I've experienced with the |rockets|UPK|rockets| loadout, you'll be on |I| for the rockets, and |UPK| for the gun pod.

I'm assuming from that, that the pylons have separate circuits for different loadout types.

As you can see it's more assumptions than actual knowledge, so a definitive answer would be informative from someone more knowledgeable.

That's actually a good point, Flagrum.

 

I'm under the impression that, the cheat-sheet is more of a guideline than a loadout rule-set.

 

From what I've experienced with the |rockets|UPK|rockets| loadout, you'll be on |I| for the rockets, and |UPK| for the gun pod.

 

I'm assuming from that, that the pylons have separate circuits for different loadout types.

 

As you can see it's more assumptions than actual knowledge, so a definitive answer would be informative from someone more knowledgeable.

Well, it could be that the load out page in the mission editor just can't enforce some load out restrictions. See for exampe station 6 of the A-10C - if station 6 is loaded with ordnance, 5 and 7 can't be loaded. This is for the real A-10C ... but in the ME such if-then rules can't be implemented and therefore ED just forbid ordnance for 6 completely. But BST can't disable rockets for the outer pylons in general as it then would be impossible to load the allowed load out of 3 x rockets on each side.

Well, it could be that the load out page in the mission editor just can't enforce some load out restrictions. See for exampe station 6 of the A-10C - if station 6 is loaded with ordnance, 5 and 7 can't be loaded. This is for the real A-10C ... but in the ME such if-then rules can't be implemented and therefore ED just forbid ordnance for 6 completely.

Actually they have just implemented that in 1.2.7.

 

• 
  
• Adjusted valid stores for A-10C:
  

Added STN 6 weapons as STN 5 & 7, minus JDAM/WCMD. TER authorised on STN 6 for BDU-33 only.

So maby that will change.

In 1.2.7 changes were introduced to the bomb deployment and the method I described doesn't work anymore. Here's a post explaining how the new system works: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1952306&postcount=5