JSOW Weapon Qualification Mission

[USAF-Falcon87]

OK, I give up. My friends and I have repeatedly tried the "Weapon Qualification -- JSOW" mission that comes with the Hornet. The SA-10 keeps shooting down the pigs before they can get even close. Any recommendations on how to get them past the Grumble?

 

Thanks!

Edited February 25, 2020 by USAF-Falcon87
Changed title after mods moved it

[Cytarabine]

Have the same problem. On the plus side it fires a lot of missiles to achieve the shoot down now... but they still don’t get through. It feels like something is broken with JSOWs that they are easily detected (despite being meant to have a low RCS) and so get slaughtered with their slow speed at high altitude.

[Vanguard]

Did you get your bombs on target? Yes? Mission accomplished. They got shot down? Maybe this mission is telling you JSOWs aren't a good option for an SA-10, which is designed to shoot down JSOWs. Clearly you have a grasp on how to deliver them on target so... move on...

 

Edit: Later you'll be able to adjust the terminal parameters, such as angle, speed, etc. I assume later on, tweaking for the target will improve changes, i.e. you could set angle to 90 deg or 10 deg for either a dive bomb or super shallow to get under its min alt.

Edited February 26, 2020 by Vanguard

[USAF-Falcon87]

Did you get your bombs on target? Yes? Mission accomplished.

 

No, which is why I said they keep getting shot down.

 

They got shot down? Maybe this mission is telling you JSOWs aren't a good option for an SA-10, which is designed to shoot down JSOWs.

 

Great plan, except the mission is the "Weapon Qualification - JSOW" mission, in which you are given JSOWs to attack the assigned target, which happens to be an SA-10. If I were choosing weapons for a SAM, I'd choose a HARM, which is designed for that, but that's not the option.

 

Since the module creators put this as a mission, it seems reasonable that there must be a way to complete it. So either a) there are techniques, tactics, or practices I'm not using or 2) the mission is bugged. What I am looking for is someone who has actually completed the mission to provide some advice.

[Harker]

The mission might have been working when it first came out, but since then, there have been RCS changes for the JSOWs, so things have changed. I would follow Vanguard's advice and move on.

 

You shouldn't be able to take out an SA-10 site with a few JSOWs anyway or a few HARMs, for that matter. You need to use saturation attacks in order to overwhelm it, something not really possible with one aircraft. And IRL, an SA-10 site would be protected by a ton of shorter range systems, including TORs and Tunguskas, that are even better at engaging missiles and glide bombs. There's a reason these are also called area denial systems.

[dporter22]

This mission is not possible to complete in its current form.  There is no way a single F-18 with four JSOWs can successfully attack the assigned targets when there is a battery of 32 SA-10s protecting the area.  No matter what you do, no matter which direction/altitude/distance you launch from, and no matter how you configure the JSOWs, the SA-10s will take them out every time.