A look on air to ground weapons in DCS : MiG-21Bis

[WinterH]

Hi everyone,

 

I've written a bit on air to ground armament available to us in DCS : MiG-21Bis, along with sort of a mini review (full on personal look on aircraft and module will follow later).

 

Initially I was thinking this would be a look on all ordnance and pods but A-G alone was already quite a bit long :music_whistling:

 

Hope you'll enjoy and here you go :) :

 

http://whmilsimflyer.blogspot.com.tr/2014/10/dcs-mig-21bis-by-leatherneck.html

[Valkenswaard]

Very nice! Thanks! :thumbup:

[xxJohnxx]

Very nice work! Thanks for creating!

[ff4life4]

Thank you

[kojdog]

Thanks for making this and NOT making a video series! However, could you offer more insight into how you go about toss and level bombing in the Mig-21? Even if you're not an expert some guidance in the procedures would be appreciated. My current approach of "feel" is having mixed results and I'm almost always far too close to the target before I can get an accurate release.

[WinterH]

Thanks everyone for reading and kind comments :)

 

Thanks for making this and NOT making a video series! However, could you offer more insight into how you go about toss and level bombing in the Mig-21? Even if you're not an expert some guidance in the procedures would be appreciated. My current approach of "feel" is having mixed results and I'm almost always far too close to the target before I can get an accurate release.

 

Well, videos are being covered already by people like Bunyap and xxJohnxx, who do excellent video tutorials on both MiG and Saber among others, and evidenly also have much better computers than mine :D my laptop is not quite up to running the sim and record videos at the same time, not with any quality at least lol. And I believe that I am better at writing than narrating :).

 

As for toss and level bombing with MiG, I am not expert at all, rather I am still training with / trying to improve those skills. My success rate with them is rather hit / miss currently, one sortie I hit a bunch of targets, other sortie can land the bomb even in same ballpark as them :). But, I can say there is method to my madness :) and here's how :

 

Procedures for involve coming up with working setups and either getting accurate with range estimation or knowing landmarks around targets to use as ranging cues. Setups themselves involve following parameters, for level bombing runs :

- Type of bomb(s) to utilize : Different bombs have different aerodynamics and weights, leading to different trajectories. Better to pick a few bomb types and stick with them in experiments, since there are many other variables to tackle.

- Altitude to release : For level bombing runs on convoys, especially with cluster bombs, I have found I get both decent range and good submunition spread with releases from around 1000-ish meters, evidently I still haven't pinpointed exact value for myself yet.

- Airspeed : Faster you are, further your bombs will travel and you may release while you can hopefully still see your targets on ASP. Also, for cluster bombs, faster you are, longer they will spread over the ground. In my succesful runs I was relatively fast, but don't really recall exact speeds myself, but it should be above 800 km/h.

- Fixed net sight : This stuff is really helpful... It helps with aligning correctly with target, and you can find a reference point on it to use as targeting cue that work with your particular speed / altitude / bomb combination. With RBK-250 & RBK-500 combination, I have found I can use bottom part of fixed net as a reference point to release when it hits the bottom of a convoy, and I am fast and about 1000 meter high.

 

For toss bombing, additional considerations come into play :

- Release angle : Angle at which you will loft the bomb. I try to stick to 30 degrees climb angle.

My procedure for tossing bombs in MiG-21 is to first, before take off, plan an attack line that will line up with target, I try to pick up a landmark I can use to start my pop up pull about 4.5-5kms from target for FAB-100 & FAB-250 combination or 6-7km for RN-28 nukes. Once airborne, I line up with land mark and target area, dive to deck at afterburner, accelerate to 1200 km/h, start my pull at pre-chosen land mark and release at 30 degrees climb. I'd expect FAB-500 to be loftable to about same distance as RN-28 but haven't experimented a lot with it. For cluster bombs, it is more like 4km distance from target since bomblets won't go far after casings burst. Currently, toss bombing seems a better idea with blast/frag bombs in my opinion.

 

Note that these are ballpark numbers that I am still trying to refine myself. And techniques themselves, even when perfected, are area attack techniques rather than point attack techniques.

 

Obviously, for tracking these parameters, SARPP is a great tool here, because it will show your speed and altitude as well as when you have pressed the trigger. John's J-SARPP or Py-SARPP by laxentis are tools you can use, I use J-SARPP myself. After a succesfull run, you can measure distance to target at release from playing the track of your flight and measuring it in F10 map, and obviously you can either not the other values there too or use SARPP recordings themselves. (Hell I'd be more accurate if I did note the numbers myself instead of trusting to my memory heheh)

 

Since it can carry the same bombs, and has a visible CCRP/CCIP pipper, and has more or less same fixed net option too, Su-25 can be helpful to practice with, it did give me a rough idea of range and altitude to try level bomb with clusters, and next time I tried it in MiG it was a 4 kill run on targets that weren't even really close to each other nor were neatly lined up at all. If I only did note the parameters I have used there... :D.

[chanurr]

Hope you'll enjoy and here you go :) :

 

http://whmilsimflyer.blogspot.com.tr/2014/10/dcs-mig-21bis-by-leatherneck.html

 

Hi WinterH

 

very good review and interesting blog...:thumbup:

 

i like it and i put on my favorites now for reading regularity...:smartass:

 

thx

[silverofx441]

Very nice Sir! Thank you!:thumbup: