New Bomb Delay Issue

[LeCuvier]

I read in the OB change log that a first step of the new bomb delay functionality is available and decided to try it.
In ME you can now see that some of the bombs allow selection of fuses with delays like 0.7 and 1.2 s.
I chose a FW-190A8 equipped with a AB-250 SD10 bomb and dropped it on or near a BTR. To my surprise, I could not see any impact crater. So I repeated the exercise and found that the bomb exploded in mid-air. I have a feeling that the bomb explodes 0.7 or 1.2 s after you drop it.

I don't believe that's right. The delay should start on impact. I include a little track.

FW-190A8 250 kg Bomb Test 1.trk

[Ala13_ManOWar]

Since AB bombs are cluster bombs, they need to be dropped at a certain altitude in order for it to open and free the canisters. If you drop it close enough to the ground not only it won't open, it of course doesn't explode at all.

[LeCuvier]

I overlooked that little detail, sorry!
Selecting SC-50 and SC-250 bombs, I could select a delay of 8.5 s and that worked. I would have hoped for something around 1 or 2 s. That should be enough to avoid being shredded by my own bomb. 8.5 s give the targeted vehicles time to drive away from the impact point, and AI vehicles do.
With the SC-500 I could select a 5 s delay. I didn't measure it, but it felt more like 8 s.
While these delay times seem much longer than desirable, it looks like a good first step. A little description of the fields might be good. The field "Vz Mode Function Delay seems redundant?

Edited July 23, 2022 by LeCuvier

[Frederf]

The way the Ez. Al. (38) fuze should normally work is that you pick your mode (Wag oV, Wag mV, Sturz oV, Sturz mV) and release. The Vz "candle" is enabled after a short time. The normal electric fuze is enabled later. If the bomb hits before any is enabled it duds. If the bomb hits after candle but before electric fuze then candle burns for X seconds and explodes. If the bomb hits after electric fuze then it explodes immediately* (*maybe some milliseconds delay if that is how fuze is configured).

But there are alternate work types. In this case the fuze looks to be configured for "fixed Vz" meaning that the point-detonation action is completely disabled and the bomb will only explode due to the delay candle. Vz will still have an arm time which doesn't appear to be displayed on that screen. If the bomb drop is super short, say while landing gear is touching the ground, then nothing is armed. This makes the normal arming circuit times completely irrelevant. They might as well say "X" or "-1" or something.

El. Az. 38

Mode "variable"

• Vz arm time - not displayed
• Wag arm time - 7.5s
• Sturz arm time - 3s
• oV function time - 50ms
• mV function time - 200ms
• Vz function time - 5s

Mode "fixed"

• Vz arm time - not displayed
• Wag arm time - 2s (irrelevant)
• Sturz arm time - 1s (irrelevant)
• oV function time - "5s" (not really since it's not going to function normally)
• mV function time - "5s" (not really since it's not going to function normally)
• Vz function time - 5s

I think someone saw this diagram and got confused that it was 5 seconds + an additional 5 seconds for a total of 10 seconds. That's not how it works. The bomb should explode 5 seconds after impact (if that's the detonation logic path), not 10. Maybe there are two 5 second delay items, one handle and one electro-pyrotechnic delay similar to the millisecond-scale delay elements. But they would burn in parallel. The candles were not high precision devices so they could be off by quite a bit before or after.

Edited July 23, 2022 by Frederf

[LeCuvier]

Thanks for this exhaustive explanation!
I'm using the SC 500 bomb, with the settings of my 1st post, to sink large ships like the ELNYA.
As I find it almost impossible to hit a ship from a safe altitude, I attack in an extremely low (not shallow) dive in "Sturz MV" mode, releasing the bomb very low so I can be sure it won't miss, and pulling up at very low altitude, almost like a Stuka. Fortunately that's not a problem in the Anton. I doubt that the bomb has 1 s for arming, and I guess you are saying that the arming time doesn't apply in Sturz mode, so that would make sense.
This mode works very well with undefended ships, almost every bomb is a kill. With any kind flak on board it would be suicide of course.

[Frederf]

You can't set SC500 bomb with settings of your first post. Do you mean like the picture in second post? With SC500/38/fixed the bomb should arm "Vz" shortly after release and then do the delayed explosion after impact. It should be safe at any altitude and should arm Vz at about 14m level release.

You can see El. Az. 38 has Vz arming time of between 1,2 and 2,0 seconds with 150 volts (waagerecht) and 0,6 and 1 second with 240 volts (sturz). In variable configuration instant detonation can occur after arming in as little as 3,5 seconds or as much as 14 seconds.

Regarding SC50 grade I "Bombs can me modified for use on water targets by removing the tail fins. It is claimed ballistics are not changed up to an altitude of 200 meters. Fuze El.AZ (38) is used on this type of target. Its maximum delay of five seconds allows 12 to 18 meters of water travel."

Edited July 24, 2022 by Frederf

[LeCuvier]

29 minutes ago, Frederf said:

... Do you mean like the picture in second post?

Yes, sorry! An interesting document, I haven't seen those gothic fonts for a while. I'm German born in 1945, so they don't bother me, but for a lot of people they might be difficult to read and Google-Translate won't help :).
I hope that ED will at some point in time come up with a comprehensive description for the features they implement.

 

 

 

[NineLine]

Its a little confusing right now, showing the Vz time when set to variable. I have asked for a slight change so it only shows the VZ time when set to Fixed.

Clusters are not 100% there, you can only set the canister settings, not the sub-munition settings, that is coming. 

[LeCuvier]

13 hours ago, NineLine said:

Its a little confusing right now, showing the Vz time when set to variable. I have asked for a slight change so it only shows the VZ time when set to Fixed.

Clusters are not 100% there, you can only set the canister settings, not the sub-munition settings, that is coming. 

thanks for clarifying!