Viggen Rocket Employment in 2.5

So prior to 2.5 the Viggen rockets seemed to always fall a little short following standard procedures (target motion off, wait for wings to fire). I recall one of the devs saying this was a known issue and they were working on a fix. I could get the rockets to hit consistently by aiming a little past the target point or waiting until very late to fire (the flashing side bars).

In 2.5, I seem to be having the opposite problem: they almost always seem to go long. Radar ANF, aim at target, unsafe, wait for wings and fire almost invariable ends up with the rockets going long for me now. I'm curious about other peoples experience with the ARAKs in 2.5.

Do you set the QFE ?

I've only ever used the ARAKs once and this was a few days ago in the 3rd mission of the Red Flag campaign. I've never used them before, not even for training purposes. I only read the manual how to use them and then employed them on the mission target and I was stunned by how accurate they were. The wings indication came earlier than expected (the distance was pretty huge compared to what I'm used to when employing rockets with other aircraft types), so I was caught by suprise a bit and might have pressed the trigger a quarter of a second too late, but they did hit the target on point. It felt pretty awesome, so I'm now definately going to use them more often :)

As I've never used them before I can't say how they compare to earlier versions of DCS.

A couple nights ago I was wondering the same thing, but after setting up my own mission to attack an EWR 55G6 (in OB 2.5 with unlimited weapons), I'm starting to think it might just be pilot error. I seem to do much better if I go higher (500-1000 meters AGL), come in at a nice steep dive angle, and put the aiming point -- * -- right up against the bottom of the target (smooth and gently squeeze the trigger (so it doesn't jerk the sight around). I still need more practice but I can tell you, the more I practice it seems my aim is getting better with this. There's limited time I know once you get the good firing solution que before the too close blinking bars | * | display (could potentially get hit by your own rocket blast(s)). I know it makes me panic to get the shot off quick leading to mistakes sometimes. I could probably even use to add a little more curve to my Pitch and Roll (both at 11 right now) for better sight stability. I've been working on this just for the Mission 3 Red Flag Campaign Mission. Flying the new Campaign has been wicked fun.

Interesting! I'm also enjoying the campaign but was repeatedly unable to hit the target in mission 3 so I setup my own test mission (2.5 OB) with unlimited ammo. Even there with repeated runs on the target I had similar issues with the rockets going long at a variety of different dive angles.

It may well be I just need more practice (rockets are hard, particularly with the Viggen's pre-CCIP sight) but I know the devs said there was an issue with rockets in 2.2/1.5.8 so I'm trying to figure out how much is me and how much, if any, is a bug. I just used the same mission template and tried DYK bombing and also had it go long but again hard to tell if that's something that changed in 2.5 (I used to be pretty good with bombs, but again, they take a lot of practice) or not.

EDIT: I did set the QFE for the target, though that shouldn't make big difference since both rockets and DYK use the radar ranging (my understanding is that the QFE in those cases may affect the "dot" which shows initial target location in ANF but that the actual firing indications are determined by the radar and not the QFE).

I just put this together quick. See what you think:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hco_OnAitQ

:thumbup:

What is your dive angle? If you have to small, i find it very easy to miss. I go for 15-30 degrees dive angle.

Well that video convinces me that the sighting is working correctly, though I still consistently go long with my shots. I'll experiment with steeper dive angles. I'm wondering if maybe it's an issue that when pressing the trigger I move the stick a little and thus pitch up.

Rockets also work for me just as expected.

4 racks of rockets well delivered on a target is very satisfying.