How do you clean up the tank fleet efficiently?

[FrostLaufeyson]

In the previous discount, I bought the F18. Compared with the FC3, it really has many interesting ground weapons, and I have basically learned them all. Since I often conduct air-to-ground attacks on PVE servers, now I want to know some common countermeasures.

Regardless of the cost, using JSOW-C with LITENING can strike 8 ground targets in one round, which is very efficient. But for moving targets, I have to use laser guided weapons, usually GBU-12 (because it can also carry 8 at a time), but I can only hit one ground target per round.
I also tried to use AGM-65F to attack four moving tanks at once, but after LITENING locked the target, 65F could no longer adjust the camera.

The power of cluster bombs in DCS does not seem to be strong enough, and F18 does not have terminal sensitive bombs, so I am reluctant to use cluster bombs. If MK-20 or CBU-99 is your answer, then I will try to practice.

[Shimmergloom667]

The F-18 is not designed to "clean up tank fleets". Thusly, it doesn't have a lot of mass anti armor weaponry, as per real life.

[SteelPig]

19 minutes ago, FrostLaufeyson said:

I also tried to use AGM-65F to attack four moving tanks at once, but after LITENING locked the target, 65F could no longer adjust the camera.

And,if the handover has worked, you shouldn't be able. The Maverick is locked to your target now and follows. 

The question of efficiency is related to the question, what you mean with it. If you carry 4 Mavericks and all hit and destroy a tank, you have stopped a whole tank-company. Cause for a military unit is considered to be disruptet when it has reduced to 70% of its strength. One Hornet stopped a whole tank company. Pretty effective, I think.

[Shimmergloom667]

9 minutes ago, SteelPig said:

And,if the handover has worked, you shouldn't be able. The Maverick is locked to your target now and follows. 

The question of efficiency is related to the question, what you mean with it. If you carry 4 Mavericks and all hit and destroy a tank, you have stopped a whole tank-company. Cause for a military unit is considered to be disruptet when it has reduced to 70% of its strength. One Hornet stopped a whole tank company. Pretty effective, I think.

4 tanks is a platoon, not a company

*EDIT* Oh, now I get what you mean. Yeah, a company losing 4 tanks is down to less than 70% and thusly disrupted. I need more coffee.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Shimmergloom667

[SteelPig]

1 hour ago, Shimmergloom667 said:

4 tanks is a platoon, not a company

*EDIT* Oh, now I get what you mean. Yeah, a company losing 4 tanks is down to less than 70% and thusly disrupted. I need more coffee.

 

right. But if you have destroyed the platoon, you have made the company disrupted. Not destroyed. But disrupted. 

Ah. Didn't seen your edit. Could there be a cup of coffee for me,too?  

Edited November 5, 2021 by SteelPig

[Shimmergloom667]

3 hours ago, SteelPig said:

right. But if you have destroyed the platoon, you have made the company disrupted. Not destroyed. But disrupted. 

Ah. Didn't seen your edit. Could there be a cup of coffee for me,too?  

 

Absolutely, here's to your health!

[FrostLaufeyson]

3小时前，SteelPig说：

And,if the handover has worked, you shouldn't be able. The Maverick is locked to your target now and follows. 

The question of efficiency is related to the question, what you mean with it. If you carry 4 Mavericks and all hit and destroy a tank, you have stopped a whole tank-company. Cause for a military unit is considered to be disruptet when it has reduced to 70% of its strength. One Hornet stopped a whole tank company. Pretty effective, I think.

I just want to know if there is any way that the F18 can destroy as many targets as possible in a single dive. 

In other words, how can you pour your weapons on the enemy in the shortest time

However, it seems that these things can be shown off by A10C. I just want to know how far F18 can do.

[MTM]

FrostLaufeyson, watch this video and practice finding targets in the TGP and then use the undesignate button to manually slew your Mavericks.

If you learn to do it fast enough, you just might be able to fire four Mavs in one pass. It’s not easy! I usually only use the TGP on the first target and then I use the Mav seeker to lock up the rest. Even then, four in one pass is hard to do!

That said, I’ve learned to love the GBU-12. Not as fast or efficient as the maverick, but if you learn to take your time, prioritize your targets, and take them out one at a time, it’s so much more satisfying!

Good hunting!

[FrostLaufeyson]

14小时前，MTM说：

FrostLaufeyson, watch this video and practice finding targets in the TGP and then use the undesignate button to manually slew your Mavericks.

If you learn to do it fast enough, you just might be able to fire four Mavs in one pass. It’s not easy! I usually only use the TGP on the first target and then I use the Mav seeker to lock up the rest. Even then, four in one pass is hard to do!

That said, I’ve learned to love the GBU-12. Not as fast or efficient as the maverick, but if you learn to take your time, prioritize your targets, and take them out one at a time, it’s so much more satisfying!

Good hunting!

The way the 65F is used is different from what I expected, but I think I should be able to attack 4 tanks in a single dive after practicing a few more times.

[CougarFFW04]

8 hours ago, FrostLaufeyson said:

The way the 65F is used is different from what I expected, but I think I should be able to attack 4 tanks in a single dive after practicing a few more times.

Good luck... because the way the Mav head works in combination with the FLIR is all but easy...
For a single pass shoot it's easy but as soon as you want to attack more in a single pass it becomes a nightmare...

As he said in the video "you might be able if lucky to slew back to the target".
Unfortunatly most of the time I am unlucky.
To be more lucky you can also designate a markpoint just before firing first AGM and then choose it as the target point. You now should be closer to the tank last position but it's tricky to do all these things also taking care of your flight path.
Was also dicussed here

Good practicing

Edited November 6, 2021 by CougarFFW04

[tech_op2000]

If the goal is to drop as many bombs on target as possible with the f18 the answer is 10x dumb bombs. Either MK-82s or CBU-99s. It takes significant precision flying skills to get all of them to hit their targets, the targets have to be close enough together to allow you to do it in a single dive, and you are exposing yourself to increased risk of AAA fire or sams. But it can be done.

You may have some luck on moving convoys with the Cluster JSOWS by just carpet bombing the area you anticipate the moving convoy to be with all 8 of them. A bit high on the collateral damage with that one though. And timing is key.

If you have more time in the AO to re-engage, 8x laser guided gbu-12s can have a 100% success rate against 8 different targets. You can master using the helmet or HUD to designate each target initially, quickly adjust the position with the TGP, and drop. 

It is important to remember that DCS attempts to simulate these aircraft as realistically as it can. In Real Life, a single F-18 isn't expected to take out more than a tank platoon( 4 tanks) and likely not even that many. It is more likely that a flight of aircraft would have that mission and each aircraft would carry maybe up to 4 bombs and take extra fuel tanks. 
In the case of a convoy, A hornet might only destroy a single vehicle in it to stop its progress until a cas asset can engage it, like an A10 or Apache(cant wait!!!)

[FrostLaufeyson]

16小时前，CougarFFW04说：

Good luck... because the way the Mav head works in combination with the FLIR is all but easy...
For a single pass shoot it's easy but as soon as you want to attack more in a single pass it becomes a nightmare...

As he said in the video "you might be able if lucky to slew back to the target".
Unfortunatly most of the time I am unlucky.
To be more lucky you can also designate a markpoint just before firing first AGM and then choose it as the target point. You now should be closer to the tank last position but it's tricky to do all these things also taking care of your flight path.
Was also dicussed here

Good practicing

 

 

12小时前，tech_op2000说：

If the goal is to drop as many bombs on target as possible with the f18 the answer is 10x dumb bombs. Either MK-82s or CBU-99s. It takes significant precision flying skills to get all of them to hit their targets, the targets have to be close enough together to allow you to do it in a single dive, and you are exposing yourself to increased risk of AAA fire or sams. But it can be done.

You may have some luck on moving convoys with the Cluster JSOWS by just carpet bombing the area you anticipate the moving convoy to be with all 8 of them. A bit high on the collateral damage with that one though. And timing is key.

If you have more time in the AO to re-engage, 8x laser guided gbu-12s can have a 100% success rate against 8 different targets. You can master using the helmet or HUD to designate each target initially, quickly adjust the position with the TGP, and drop. 

It is important to remember that DCS attempts to simulate these aircraft as realistically as it can. In Real Life, a single F-18 isn't expected to take out more than a tank platoon( 4 tanks) and likely not even that many. It is more likely that a flight of aircraft would have that mission and each aircraft would carry maybe up to 4 bombs and take extra fuel tanks. 
In the case of a convoy, A hornet might only destroy a single vehicle in it to stop its progress until a cas asset can engage it, like an A10 or Apache(cant wait!!!)

Thanks for your answers

[Hazardpro]

I think the intended weapon for use against a column of tanks for most of the hornet's service life would have been mk20s. And they certainly seem to perform rather anemically in DCS compared to their real life service history.

I believe AGM-65F is primarily an anti-ship weapon, not sure how often it's been used for ground attack. And laser guided weapons were more of a specialized capability early on and not the go-to strike option until later into the 2000s. 

Edited November 9, 2021 by Hazardpro

[tech_op2000]

14 hours ago, Hazardpro said:

I think the intended weapon for use against a column of tanks for most of the hornet's service life would have been mk20s. And they certainly seem to perform rather anemically in DCS compared to their real life service history.

I believe AGM-65F is primarily an anti-ship weapon, not sure how often it's been used for ground attack. And laser guided weapons were more of a specialized capability early on and not the go-to strike option until later into the 2000s. 

 

I have found the MK20 Rockeye's to be highly effective if successfully dropped on target. It is true that they will not always destroy a tank but I don't think that would be accurate to real life anyway. I suspect a Rockeye IRL would disable a tank, perhaps destroying its engine, making its turret and gun non functional, killing crew, and disabling tracks. Maybe not all of those every time. But unlikely to completely destroy it. Perhaps their DCS performance deficiency is more of a tank damage model problem than a Rockeye problem.

This Matt Wagner Video shows them being quite effective even up to MBTs. 

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by tech_op2000