FlightControl Posted November 8, 2016 Posted November 8, 2016 (edited) Hello all, I have a number of questions about the process of marking (smoking) targets. My questions are both for Russian and for NATO oriënted armies. DCS comes with a smoking capability, where you can smoke various points within the battlefield in various colors: blue, red, orange, green, white. I am not an army specialist, but am developing a "smoking process", that allows using lua scripting to smoke certain areas or certain targets etc. If there are experts on the community that can shed some light on how in a real battle field a smoking process is executed, that would be really helpful. So here are my questions about A. Communication Smoke does not last forever, and smoking a target should be coordinated in some way. What are possible ways how communication is done between a unit on the ground, or a unit in the air to smoke a target. I guess there needs to be some "arrival" trigger where the attacker arrives at a certain zone or point, before communication can happen, right? And, there must be some radioing or agreements when a smoke "trigger" can actually execute. B. Smoking units... Possibly any unit can smoke targets, right? But for ground troops, is it possible that: 1. Artillery smokes an area? 2. Recon troops smoke an area? What is the maximum distance in that case a recon would be able to smoke the target? 3. Do naval units smoke areas too? If yes, what kind of weapons are used? Rockets? Shells? C. Color ... Are there any standard colors or agreements on which color smokes which target? Or is all at random and can be determined by the mission designer? Can a certain smoke color provide also information to the enemy what kind of target is attacked? D. Accuracy ... How accurate is smoking? I mean, when targets are marked, are they marked through direct hits, or, are they marked near the target. If it is near, how much distance from the target in general in metes (10, 50, 100, 200)? What would be an acceptable "error" range? D. Flaring ... Are flares used to mark targets? E. Lighting ... Can ground troops fire light bulbs? Hope these questions make sense ... Thanks in advance for answering! FC Edited November 8, 2016 by FlightControl [TABLE][sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]| Join MOOSE community on: DISCORD :thumbup: Website of the MOOSE LUA Framework. MOOSE framework Downloads. Check out Example Missions to try out and learn. MOOSE YouTube Channel for live demonstrations and tutorials. [/TABLE]
Eddie Posted November 8, 2016 Posted November 8, 2016 A. Yes it's coordinated via radio, this is done by the FAC. Usually the FAC will mark the target when the aircraft calls IP inbound. If you watch some of the videos from us or the 132nd you'll get a good example of the FAC/Striker comma flow. B. 1. It's possible with WPbut not really practical. If you've got artillery you'd just have them fire HE and destroy the target in the first place. 2. Any infantry can use smoke, either thrown smoke grenades (how far can you throw a ball?) or under slung grenade launchers (~200-300 metres). 3. Again they could, but as with land based artillery unlikely to be much point. C. There are various colours of marking smoke, and white/grey screening smoke grenades. White Phosphorus which is used by aircraft/artillery and by infantry/vehicles to produce large smoke clouds quickly is white. D. They could be (you can use anything available,) but not typically. E. No. but the can throw IR strobes. More useful would be IR markers attached to their weapons.
Recommended Posts