AN/AAQ-28 LITENING pod difficulties...

[Swiso]

Hello all.

I am learning to fly the F-16 but one thing I have lot of difficulties is using the LITENING pod.

First of all, I find it extremely difficult finding the targets...be it Tanks, IFV, SAM, etc... I mean, the dimension of the MFD is not very big, and I don't know what should be the best "operating mode" to find such targets...TV/CCD or WHOT or BHOT..

Then there is the way to "how to pass the TGT position" to the weapon... be it a JDAM, JSOW, MAV, LGB or any weapon in CCRP mode....

I have a lot of problems to understand which mode is best to use with which weapon...

I tried the TRAINING missions, but they start when you are already in the final run to the TGT...usually in front of you.. and they show which key to press and what to do, but when I start a flight in a Multiplayer server, on the ground, then flying to a target area is a different thing....first find the tgt...then how to setup the attack...

I saw some tutorials and they look like it is so easy to use it...but man... SO many variables / options / modes...

Any suggestion as what to look for ? be it a video, lecture ?

I appreciate any help.

Thanks !

 

 

[razo+r]

1 minute ago, Swiso said:

First of all, I find it extremely difficult finding the targets...be it Tanks, IFV, SAM, etc... I mean, the dimension of the MFD is not very big, and I don't know what should be the best "operating mode" to find such targets...TV/CCD or WHOT or BHOT..

Depends on many things like time of day, have the units been travelling, their camo etc. So the best operating mode is the one that currently fits the circumstances.

1 minute ago, Swiso said:

Then there is the way to "how to pass the TGT position" to the weapon... be it a JDAM, JSOW, MAV, LGB or any weapon in CCRP mode....

It's very simple. Take any sensor, like FCR or TGP or whatever, point it where you want and press TMS UP. This will basically designate that point as your new SPI and that is where weapons will go to.

1 minute ago, Swiso said:

Any suggestion as what to look for ? be it a video, lecture ?

The manual can help and it's quicker to find specific stuff in it, though currently it's rather limited and still work in progress. 

Otherwise, you might aswell look up tutorial videos on youtube as to what you currently want to learn.

[Swiso]

19 minutes ago, razo+r said:

Depends on many things like time of day, have the units been travelling, their camo etc. So the best operating mode is the one that currently fits the circumstances.

It's very simple. Take any sensor, like FCR or TGP or whatever, point it where you want and press TMS UP. This will basically designate that point as your new SPI and that is where weapons will go to.

The manual can help and it's quicker to find specific stuff in it, though currently it's rather limited and still work in progress. 

Otherwise, you might aswell look up tutorial videos on youtube as to what you currently want to learn.

Thanks.

That's what I'm doing right now.. looking for tutorials on youtube..

Maybe need to look in detail at all the functions of the TGT pod and go from there.

Thanks.

[QuiGon]

3 hours ago, razo+r said:

It's very simple. Take any sensor, like FCR or TGP or whatever, point it where you want and press TMS UP. This will basically designate that point as your new SPI and that is where weapons will go to.

With the TGP it's actually even simpler than that as you don't even need to press TMS UP. As long as your weapon is in CCRP or PRE mode (depends on the type of weapon) it will always go where you're TGP is pointing to. You don't need to press TMS UP. That just switches between AREA and POINT track.

So in short: Select CCRP or PRE on the SMS page and then slew the TGP over the target. Release weapons. Done.

Edited February 27, 2023 by QuiGon

[Swiso]

On 2/27/2023 at 5:12 PM, QuiGon said:

With the TGP it's actually even simpler than that as you don't even need to press TMS UP. As long as your weapon is in CCRP or PRE mode (depends on the type of weapon) it will always go where you're TGP is pointing to. You don't need to press TMS UP. That just switches between AREA and POINT track.

So in short: Select CCRP or PRE on the SMS page and then slew the TGP over the target. Release weapons. Done.

 

Thanks!

Will try that.

 

[void68]

Am 27.2.2023 um 13:40 schrieb Swiso:

First of all, I find it extremely difficult finding the targets...be it Tanks, IFV, SAM, etc... I mean, the dimension of the MFD is not very big, and I don't know what should be the best

There is a "cheat" mode like "MFD / HUD only view" (CTRL+F1 or so, can't look ATM) with a full front view with just the enlarged MFDs and the HUD visible. I use this a lot, cause in VR the MFDs' content is even hard to recognize and identify. Also you can do a Zoom Into for better resolution. Still it's hard to find targets through the ground clutter like trees, rocks, buildings. I think that simulates real life problems - your targets will do almost everything so that you don't see them. Same with IR (or radar), the days are gone where vehicles are so much hotter than their surroundings. If you take a parked truck the IR signature will match the surrounding temperature but the black, in sunlight heated up tyres will shine bright in (WHOT) IR. Impressively realistic. Try an (IR) Maverick - D in plain daylight desert and the seeker gets a pretty hard job finding a proper heat signature.

That's what the MFD's brightness, contrast and IR intensity (and radar gain) switches are for. Play around with the settings in WHOT, BHOT and TV mode and you will notice that a proper setting will result in the target gets killed rather than you. With old, more arcade like flightsim times an IR sensored weapon "saw" every tank all the time, it was always the best choice (even in the old Falcon 4.0). With the actual F16 / Mavericks I prefer TV guided most of the time and choose IR only for night missions (well, I don't use Maves at all ATM due to broken boresighting) or in winter conditions. I still have to figure out if vehicles change heat signature in relation to cooling down after travel. SAM launchers (the launcher ramp) are pretty cold, as they just sit and wait and are powered via a remote generator with litte "garbage energy" like heat losses. A tank in full speed is a very hot target.

The right mode, the right sensor, the right weapon, that's the key.

[Swiso]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:12 AM, void68 said:

There is a "cheat" mode like "MFD / HUD only view" (CTRL+F1 or so, can't look ATM) with a full front view with just the enlarged MFDs and the HUD visible. I use this a lot, cause in VR the MFDs' content is even hard to recognize and identify. Also you can do a Zoom Into for better resolution. Still it's hard to find targets through the ground clutter like trees, rocks, buildings. I think that simulates real life problems - your targets will do almost everything so that you don't see them. Same with IR (or radar), the days are gone where vehicles are so much hotter than their surroundings. If you take a parked truck the IR signature will match the surrounding temperature but the black, in sunlight heated up tyres will shine bright in (WHOT) IR. Impressively realistic. Try an (IR) Maverick - D in plain daylight desert and the seeker gets a pretty hard job finding a proper heat signature.

That's what the MFD's brightness, contrast and IR intensity (and radar gain) switches are for. Play around with the settings in WHOT, BHOT and TV mode and you will notice that a proper setting will result in the target gets killed rather than you. With old, more arcade like flightsim times an IR sensored weapon "saw" every tank all the time, it was always the best choice (even in the old Falcon 4.0). With the actual F16 / Mavericks I prefer TV guided most of the time and choose IR only for night missions (well, I don't use Maves at all ATM due to broken boresighting) or in winter conditions. I still have to figure out if vehicles change heat signature in relation to cooling down after travel. SAM launchers (the launcher ramp) are pretty cold, as they just sit and wait and are powered via a remote generator with litte "garbage energy" like heat losses. A tank in full speed is a very hot target.

The right mode, the right sensor, the right weapon, that's the key.

Thank you very much for these suggestions and good points!

That's a good start... now I "just" need to practice them. !

Regarding the TV Mavericks... do the boresighting work ?

Do you usually do it on the ground or in the air ?

Thanks ! 

[Furiz]

2 hours ago, Swiso said:

Regarding the TV Mavericks... do the boresighting work ?

Do you usually do it on the ground or in the air ?

Thanks ! 

You can do it on the ground, but it is better if you do it in the air since you can get an object further away and it will boresight more accurately.

[Swiso]

9 minutes ago, Furiz said:

You can do it on the ground, but it is better if you do it in the air since you can get an object further away and it will boresight more accurately.

Thanks!

[void68]

No, it does not work. Not at all. Not with the current stable version. If you like open beta, then you will get boresighting.

[DukeAngus]

the way to find moving targets is to have the Fire Control radar in ground mapping mode and then you will see white dots and you put the cross over the white dot and then go to the targeting pod and the Pod will be pointed in the direction which sometimes will be right on the vehicles other times you have to slew around slightly. what was helpful when I was learning to use that system was to have the targeting pod on one MFD and the Fire Control radar on the other. now I am able to have the Fire Control radar on one MFD and the targeting pod on the same one that way it leaves the other MSD available to use the SMS or hsd pages. just don't forget to make the correct ones soy because if you move the Fire Control radar just a little bit it moves the targeting pot a lot.

[Swiso]

On 3/9/2023 at 11:31 AM, void68 said:

No, it does not work. Not at all. Not with the current stable version. If you like open beta, then you will get boresighting.

I use open beta.