Unguided weapon employment questions and observations

[MBot]

I decided to try the Harrier again after a long while and am generally pleased regarding many improvements with unguided weapon employment. I made some observations which I have questions about though:

 

For bomb salvos (QTY>MULTI), CCIP seems to target the first bomb and not the center of the stick. This seems unusual to me as otherwise bracketing the target seems to be the standard with western aircraft. Is this correct behaviour?

 

When having four LAU-3 rockets pods (ripple mode selected in ME) and selecting QTY 1 and MUTLI 1, each pickle press will fire one individual full pod. With QTY 2 and MULTI 1, each pickle will fire half of each of the 4 pods simultaneously. Why is this so?

 

When having a target point designated on a hill and attacking it with BCIP or GCIP, bombs land on target. So far so good (bomb triangle can be correctly calculated). But when having radar alt enabled and approaching the hilltop flat and low enough for RCIP to take precedence in the final seconds before the drop, bombs still land on target, despite RCIP is supposed to generate incorrect altitude above target at this point. While the correct precedence of CCIP>RCIP>GCIP>BCIP is indicated as text on the HUD and RCIP should be active at this point, it seems that the altitude above target for the bomb triangle is actually calculated from the known target elevation instead.

 

Flying at low altitude in level flight above rolling terrain with no target point designated, there is no discernible difference in piper behaviour when switching between GCIP, BCIP and RCIP. It seems these modes are practically the same. I am not sure if this is correct, it depends on whether GCIP and BCIP derive altitude above ground from a terrain elevation database or not (to which I have not seen any reference in the game documentation).

 

I am happy to report though that attacking non-designated targets on a hilltop with RCIP and GCIP/BCIP (in case they can produce alt above ground below aircraft from a database) correctly results in missing bombs.

 

I am also happy to see that ARBS designations in a valley results in missed bombs when attacking a target with CCIP on a hill. Though it seems that is not related to an actual simulation of ARBS with slant range calculations, but just that ARBS will put a target point designation on the map with the terrain elevation known from a database.

[Harlikwin]

When having a target point designated on a hill and attacking it with BCIP or GCIP, bombs land on target. So far so good (bomb triangle can be correctly calculated). But when having radar alt enabled and approaching the hilltop flat and low enough for RCIP to take precedence in the final seconds before the drop, bombs still land on target, despite RCIP is supposed to generate incorrect altitude above target at this point. While the correct precedence of CCIP>RCIP>GCIP>BCIP is indicated as text on the HUD and RCIP should be active at this point, it seems that the altitude above target for the bomb triangle is actually calculated from the known target elevation instead.

 

Flying at low altitude in level flight above rolling terrain with no target point designated, there is no discernible difference in piper behaviour when switching between GCIP, BCIP and RCIP. It seems these modes are practically the same. I am not sure if this is correct, it depends on whether GCIP and BCIP derive altitude above ground from a terrain elevation database or not (to which I have not seen any reference in the game documentation).

 

 

BCIP shouldn't derive altitude AGL, its just straight above sea level, and it should have an error based on airspeed. GCIP, maybe, I'm not 100% clear how that works with the map database.

 

I am happy to report though that attacking non-designated targets on a hilltop with RCIP and GCIP/BCIP (in case they can produce alt above ground below aircraft from a database) correctly results in missing bombs.

 

I am also happy to see that ARBS designations in a valley results in missed bombs when attacking a target with CCIP on a hill. Though it seems that is not related to an actual simulation of ARBS with slant range calculations, but just that ARBS will put a target point designation on the map with the terrain elevation known from a database.

 

That's good that this seems sort-of fixed. Though that is not how the ARBS works.

[Pikey]

I did some recent tests on multiple/intervals desired Mean Point of Impact on various modules. Quick tests, not well performed but the picture I got was thus:

 

 

 

Harrier conforms to ED's model, Heatblur has an exception with theirs.

Modules tested: Harrier, A-10C, Hornet, Mirage, Tomcat, (F-5)

 

 

With multiple releases in one press the Harrier, A-10C, Mirage, Hornet obey a simple rule:

 

 

Up to 5 bombs, the DMPI is the centre, or third one.

 

 

After 5 bombs, the DMPI is the third one and all remaining bombs trail out after the fifth as "long". I only ever saw two 'short' bombs, even up to 8 bombs dropped at once.

 

 

 

Tomcat and F-5 just have the DMPI as the first target and the remaining bombs trail out long.

 

 

I've absolutely no idea if this is real or not. I suspect part of it is with modern aircraft, but there appears to be a limit at least in the game of "5" with DMPI on the pipper and 2 short, two long.

 

 

YMMV

[LastRifleRound]

Viggen puts the string dead center with 16 bombs

[MBot]

On 10/19/2019 at 12:21 PM, MBot said:

For bomb salvos (QTY>MULTI), CCIP seems to target the first bomb and not the center of the stick. This seems unusual to me as otherwise bracketing the target seems to be the standard with western aircraft. Is this correct behaviour?

Revisiting the Harrier again after some years. I am still puzzled that bomb ripples land the first bomb on target instead of the center of the stick (also the case with AUTO releases). Is this really how the real Harrier works?