Contacts Blinking on TID

[MortytheMovingTarget]

I am doing this as RIO, Pilot saw them blinking as well. We would have targets that are 50+ nm out and when TWS auto would target them, they would be blinking. Based on what I read in the manual, they should blink when they are within 8 seconds of impact, see snip from manual below. I feel like I am missing something. Can someone please explain why the contact symbol is blinking when trying to lock them with TWS auto, also when an AM-54 was launched, it would not start a countdown or track the target at all. I would really appreciate some clarity, I hope it is something that I missed when reading the manual.

 

[Longiron]

Its pretty clear, it's not time to impact but 8 seconds to optimum range. Ie. You can shoot now.

But I will say, aug9 is pretty optimistic. 

Edited November 27, 2021 by Longiron
Fat fingers

[Noctrach]

4 hours ago, Longiron said:

But I will say, aug9 is pretty optimistic. 

The blinking happens 8 seconds before R_opt and that in itself isn't anywhere near R_tr. I believe it's defined as the distance that a lofted shot will intercept a head-on target with enough energy to do terminal manoeuvring. Note that this implies something like a high-G jink defence at terminal stage by an otherwise straight-flying target. Any manoeuvres prior to this point, or the target simply turning around and running will drastically lower Pk. In "the other sim" R_opt is something like 85% of the missiles maximum aerodynamic range.

In all cases it's still a pretty low Pk shot on any aware, manoeuvring target. Considering the Phoenix can intercept non-manoeuvring targets at well over 70 miles, blinking at 50 miles seems very reasonable.

If a launch doesn't activate the countdown on the AWG-9 and/or the missile doesn't track, either something was done to spoil the shot (loss of contact, too far off boresight, etc) or you have a bug you can report.

[MortytheMovingTarget]

7 hours ago, Noctrach said:

If a launch doesn't activate the countdown on the AWG-9 and/or the missile doesn't track, either something was done to spoil the shot (loss of contact, too far off boresight, etc) or you have a bug you can report.

This is what is confusing is, i set it up exactly as everyone does in different videos and guides and it still blinks but never locks. I have not seen targets that arent blinking for some reason. When I use the Jester AI, the problem isnt there which just confuses me more because he used TWS Auto and that is it and it isnt blinking and gives a TTI number when a shot is launched. I feel like it may be a setting or something but I want to make sure that it is a problem before I report it as so. I know that I am new to DCS and the F-14B so I may just be missing something which is why I asked here to make sure.

[deathhoneybadger]

The F-14 does not "lock" a target as to say. The process for TWS auto should be. 

1 The AWG-9 allocated TWS priority 
2 The AWG-9 will flash the target when it is within 8 seconds of Optimum launching conditions. (This is usually very optemistic from the radar.)
3 You launch a missile which will give you a TTI (Time till impact). The number will stop flashing
4 You now have to maintain a track with the AWG-9 until the number starts flashing again. 
5 When the track has started flashing indicating the missile has gone active. With target size set to normal this will usually be 16 seconds TTI (This means you can maneuverer freely) 

If you lose the track between steps 4-5 the missile will not go active.