A question about queued Hellfire targeting, from pilot's orders to George while missile is still in flight

[salsantana]

I hope this isn't a tired old inquiry........ some questions can be awful difficult to word.

When I'm in pilot's seat commanding George to scan and spot targets from distances that result in long flight times for the Hellfires, is it necessary to wait until "good effects" or "target destroyed" before repeating for next target scan and spot? Is the Hellfire at all autonomous after a certain amount of time; can or does it, like a laser guided bomb does, take over lasing for the length of time you set it for, like I set lase time for 12 seconds on a GBU-x weapon in the A-10C?

thanks in advance, gurus   nicest bunch of brutal aviators ever.

 

 

[NeedzWD40]

SAL HELLFIRE requires a terminal designation that must be held until impact, but it isn't required for the entire duration unless launching in LOBL. That's why without an initial lase, you get a "Lase" message on the HMD, indicating that laser energy should be on by that point for missile acquisition. There are nuances that aren't reflected in the game, particularly the advantages of the 114K we have modeled, but those are negligible within the current iteration.

If you launch with laser energy detected by the missile (LOBL), then you must maintain the laser for the duration of flight. Otherwise, LOAL will allow you to only lase in terminal. Technically speaking, even with LOBL, the missile should reacquire, but I've found this to be spotty at best.

TL;DR: Yes, George must stay on target until the missile impacts as he will shut the laser off when you ask him to scan again.

Edited May 4, 2023 by NeedzWD40

[placsea]

A question you may naturally now have, is if you can have multiple missiles in the air and hit targets in succession. You can. Either by jumping in the front seat or firing the missile yourself in the back seat and utilizing George's NO WPN > Lase (Right Short) but it takes good timing and the targets have to be fairly close together. The ability to 'fire and forget' is why a lot of people are excited for the radar hellfire variant coming soon. 

[salsantana]

Many thanks to you all for the very generous enrichment

@NeedzWD40 - much more clear now!
I'm sheepishly unsure of the term "terminal"............."LOAL will allow you to only lase in terminal"........... I'll assume "terminal" is the last phase of weapon's flight/trajectory?

@placsea - a RADAR Hellfire variant has been a recent addition to my wish list. I've been pondering, more specifically why it hasn't been an option all along. quite happy to hear it's coming. it is precisely "fire n forget" I've hoped for. I often find George hesitating to take the shot even with a clear LOS.
I assume this RADAR release comes as part of "FCR"? I'm familiar with that only in the context of F-16 "by others". If so..... I see some serious learning curve ahead.

[NeedzWD40]

1 hour ago, salsantana said:

I'm sheepishly unsure of the term "terminal"............."LOAL will allow you to only lase in terminal"........... I'll assume "terminal" is the last phase of weapon's flight/trajectory?

Yes, that's pretty much it. For example, if you have control of the missiles and set a point as an acquisition source, then launch without any laser designation, you'll get the ETA and at some point you'll get the "lase 1 missile" message to indicate whomever is lasing should start designating. If it's a self lase, it might be your cue to bob up and designate. The closer you are, the smaller the window, so at 8km you might be able to get away with lasing at the last 10 seconds but at half that distance you might get the cue 5 seconds after launch.

1 hour ago, salsantana said:

I've been pondering, more specifically why it hasn't been an option all along. quite happy to hear it's coming. it is precisely "fire n forget" I've hoped for. I often find George hesitating to take the shot even with a clear LOS.
I assume this RADAR release comes as part of "FCR"? I'm familiar with that only in the context of F-16 "by others". If so..... I see some serious learning curve ahead.

The Longbow HELLFIRE is complicated because there's nothing else like it in the game outside of the AIM-120. It's not a magic missile and it has a lot of limitations. Within typical DCS contexts it will probably be just fine, but there will be times where the SAL version is more capable and vice versa. Most of the idiosyncrasies are related to moving targets; think shooting an AMRAAM and then breaking the lock. The only thing is there's no datalink for the 114L, so if the target is wildly off course from the projected position, it likely won't acquire. There's other quirks but until ED presents the missile, it's hard to speculate what real limits may be there.

The FCR isn't necessary to use it; it can be launched from data link info or TADS designation, in addition to the FCR.

Edited May 6, 2023 by NeedzWD40