AGM-45 Shrike Quick Guide by Klarsnow - updated June 5th 2024

[HB_Painter]

So you would like to shoot the AGM-45 Shrike off of your shiny new Phantom and LARP that you are an F-4G or a Wild Weasel of yore. The first thing thats probably on your mind after playing around with it is probably “this missile is broken” and “how the hell does it work even”.

Hopefully this guide can help clear up some of the confusion about the original Wild Weasel anti-radiation weapon and help you figure out how to use it in DCS.

How the AGM-45 guides

Everybody is probably wondering about the new seekerheads you can select with the arming and rearming menu, but first lets start with the basics. How does the AGM-45 actually fly to its target. “Its just an ARM” you say, “if it sees the emission of its target it should guide on it.” Yes and no. There are several things that have to occur for the shrike to guide. Lets start with an overview of the Shrike itself.

 

The seeker

The seeker is a passive Radio Frequency seeker that has a 45 degree field of view in DCS and a 150 second operating time, the seeker is on once the shrike is armed and will give you a high pitched tone, similar to a sidewinder, that indicates when it is tracking something inside its field of view. This tone may stutter or change as the emitter that the seeker is tracking rotates or changes modes.

Once launched the seeker is always tracking or attempting to track something that it can see within its field of view.

 

Guidance control

The guidance control section is the “autopilot” that gives the commands from the seeker to the fins to steer the missile. This section is not enabled until after launch and certain conditions are met. You can choose the conditions that will enable the guidance control by selecting LOFT ATTACK or DIRECT ATTACK on the rearm fuze selection menu, or in the mission editor.

You cannot change these via switchology in the jet (there is an exception but it is not implemented yet. If this changes I will update this to represent this)

 

LOFT ATTACK: This is the most complex set of conditions to enable the guidance control section. The conditions are:

1. Missiles barometric altimeter detects a pressure increase of 1 PSI (~1-3000 feet depending on altitude and temperature)
2. Missiles barometric altimeter sense that the missile is below 18,000ft MSL

ONCE BOTH OF THESE CONDITIONS ARE MET THE GUIDANCE CONTROL SECTION WILL UNLOCK and the signals from the seeker will be sent to the control section and the fins. 

Until these conditions are met the missile will be flying completely ballistic and unguided, even though the seeker may see and be tracking the emitter the entire time.

 

DIRECT ATTACK: With this selected the altitude sensor for the loft attack is bypassed and the guidance control unlocks approximately 3 seconds after launch. This is your “shoot it straight down the throat” guidance control selection.

The AGM-45 will naturally roll at approximately 55-60 degrees per second, and the guidance control system does not attempt to stop this once it enables. Additionally the fins only actuate with BANG-BANG control inputs, which you can watch if you observe the missile via F6 after launch.

All of this is to say that once the guidance enables the AGM-45 will be corkscrewing and its fins will be BANG-BANGing constantly, which results in a very high potential energy loss once guidance begins.

 

What all this means for employment and range

DIRECT ATTACK guidance missiles will have VERY short range, and the depression angle is very important, the more the missile has to glide to the target, the more likely it will just run out of energy and fall extremely short. Recommend trying to fire by getting 20 degrees or more nose down pointed straight at the target, or being right on top of it if firing at low altitude. Both of these will result in very short ranges.

LOFT ATTACK guidance however can get quite good range if lofted accurately. The fins remaining locked and the missile flying ballistic until guidance enable allow it to retain much of its energy and usually results in a fairly steep (30-45 degree) descent angle when it enables guidance. However remember that the seeker only has a 45 degree field of view, and the target must be inside that field of view when the guidance section activates (below 18,000 feet and missiles altimeter detects a 1 PSI pressure increase). This means you have to actually get that missile quite accurately to a window above the target when the seeker activates where it can detect it and guide.

You can employ a LOFT ATTACK shrike directly pointed at a target or level (not in a loft) as well, and it will get more range due to the fins staying locked for longer, however the missile will not start guiding till much later, so for short range immediate guidance scenarios it may not be the best.

 

With all of that How do you shoot the Shrike in the F-4E

Ok so you understand what the DIRECT and LOFT ATTACK modes do, and what the up and downsides of each mode are and what effect they have on the missiles guidance and energy. Now we get to how do you actually Use them in the F-4E.

There are 3 modes you can use to employ Shrikes in the F-4E:

1. LABS Loft
2. WRCS Direct
3. WRCS AGM-45

We will cover these three after going through the basic cockpit setup.

 

Basic cockpit switch setup

For all these modes you must:

1. Select the station for the shrike(s) you wish to employ
2. Select ARM on the weapon select knob
3. Select one of the 3 modes on the LABS/WRCS knob (LOFT, DIRECT, or AGM-45)
4. (optional) Turn the Flight Director on (if you want the needles on the ADI indicating shrike seeker look angle)
5. (optional) select A/G on the Sight
6. Turn Master ARM on

 

LABS Loft

Selecting LOFT on the LABS/WRCS knob will allow the LABS LOFT circuits to fire the shrike automatically. However this works Exactly Like it does for bombs, it simply applies the launch signal to the shrike launchers, instead of a release signal to bombs. So it is setup and used the exact same way. You will need to plan out an IP, a run in time to your loft point, and pick a loft angle, enter them in the LABS computer and timer in the backseat.

Once these are entered, you then overfly the IP, hold the pickle button down, point at the target, and follow the ADI needles, as you rotate through the preset loft angle with the pickle button held down, after the expiration of the run in timer, the missile will depart the jet.

This mode obviously requires preplanning, and the ability to know ballistically what angle you want to release the shrike at, and at what range to start the loft, and then use this to enter in the run in timer, select an IP and pick a loft angle. None of this is calculated for you, so only via trial and error and practice will you be able to figure out what settings will work for you.

 

For more information about Loft you can also take a look at our manual: Lofting & Tossing

 

WRCS DIRECT

Selecting DIRECT on the LABS/WRCS knob makes the selected shrike launch approximately 1 second after you hit the pickle button. That's it. Center up the needles, or dont center up the needles, pickle and the shrike will go on its merry way. There is zero automation, so if you desire to fire the shrike in a loft, you will have to manually pull up based on your own practice and situational awareness. There is also no indication that you are in range or out of range.

 

WRCS AGM-45

Selecting AGM-45 on the LABS/WRCS knob is the “preferred” way of employing the shrike, it will give you ranging indications for the shrike and let you know if you are in range to loft, perform a level release, or a diving release of the shrike. If you want to perform a loft or level release with this mode, you should be using a LOFT ATTACK shrike. The WRCS has no way of knowing which type of seeker guidance you have selected and will always be calculating assuming the LOFT ATTACK logic is occuring. Thus if you fire a DIRECT ATTACK missile following the loft or level release cues, it will probably start guiding immediately, and fall far far short of the target.

WRCS AGM-45 makes use of the “target altitude” setting in the computer panel in the WSO cockpit to trigonometrically calculate a ground range to your INS depression angle as displayed on your ADI. Any time your nose is below the horizon it should be calculating the range to where the ADI depression intersects with the set target altitude, if you would like your reticle to match, you need to have it depressed by 35 mils. For the most accurate ranging you will want that target altitude set to a representative altitude of the theater or target area you are pointing at.

One interesting use of this is even if you have no shrikes on the aircraft you can select this mode, and if you depress the reticle 35 mils, you can use this to get a range to locations on the ground by pointing at them with the reticle (assuming the target altitude setting is relatively accurate.)

This range should be displayed on the range readout on the HSI any time the nose is below the horizon and the calculation is running. The max range this system can calculate out to is 30 miles. This is a limitation of the WRCS, it will not display a range greater than 30 miles.

As soon as it calculates a ground range the WRCS will calculate if you are in range for a shrike and if you are in range for a loft, level, or diving release. Indication that you are in range will be one of your AOA indexer lights lighting up to indicate which of these deliveries are available to you. 

 

The indications you could get are:

• Out of range, no lights light up
• In range with a loft, upward pointing chevron illuminates
• In range for a level launch, donut illuminates
• In range for a diving direct launch, downward pointing chevron illuminates

 

Remember these indications are based on your current nose depression angle, and will be calculated and displayed regardless of whether your shrike sees anything, or even if you have a shrike on the aircraft. Only one of these should turn on at any time until you pickle, once you pickle and hold the donut will eventually illuminate to inform you the launch is about to occur.

Just to visualize this, if you start out of range to a threat, and fly towards it, with the nose pointed at the target (in a dive), first the loft cue (upward chevron) will illuminate as you get into range for a loft, then once you are close enough for a level launch, the upward chevron should go out and the donut should illuminate. Once you are too close for a level launch and approaching minimum range, the donut should go out, and the dive cue (downward chevron) should illuminate. If you get too close for that, then all the indexer lights should go out.

To use the system, select a shrike and point towards a target, once you get a signal and the needles deflect, center up the needles, once you have the needles perfectly centered in your ADI, your ADI should be directly pointed at the targets location and assuming your target altitude in the rear cockpit is somewhat accurate, the calculated ground range and LAR should also be fairly accurate.

You could also do this if you visually see a target SAM site or SAM launch, if you know the type and have the correct type of shrike seeker selected, with your reticle set to 35 mils (matching the ADI boresight) you can put the reticle on the target SAM to get your dip ranging as well.

Once you have an in range indication (one of the AOA indexer lights has illuminated) with the ADI or depressed reticle centered on the target location. Pickle and hold as you maneuver for the release. Pickling will save the range calculated and start the release computation for the shrike. Remember to continue to hold the pickle button down as you fly the launch maneuver and until the missile leaves the jet, this can take several seconds.

If you elect to do a loft with the upward chevron illuminated, pull up keeping the vertical needle centered while holding the pickle button, the donut will eventually illuminate to let you know that the missile will launch in 5 seconds assuming no parameters change. If you continue to pull up after the donut illuminates, it is possible for it to launch sooner than 5 seconds as the parameters are changing after the donut illuminates.

If you elect to wait until the donut illuminates and perform a level release, simply hold the pickle button and pull to level, the donut should remain illuminated and within 5 seconds the missile should launch.

If you wait until the dive cue is illuminated, keep the target centered in the ADI needles, pickle and hold, the donut should illuminate and the missile should launch within 5 seconds.

The DF REJ switch on the center pedestal should remain in DF REJ (down), this uses the very accurate INS depression angle (requiring you to dip your nose to align the needles on the ADI) to calculate the range. 

 

NOT IMPLEMENTED CURRENTLY-DF REJ is always used regardless of switch position

You can also move the switch to NORM (center position) This will then just use the raw shrike seeker depression angle in the same calculation, not requiring you to dip the aircraft's nose. However, the shrikes seeker depression angle is very inaccurate, and this will more than likely result in gross ranging errors which can result in your missile going too far or too short and never finding the target.

NOT IMPLEMENTED CURRENTLY-DF REJ is always used regardless of switch position

 

The recommendation from the real world manuals and how heatblur have modeled the shrike seeker indications in the cockpit is to leave the switch in DF REJ and perform the dip ranging maneuver before launch.

 

Gotchas

The LABS/WRCS knob has ZERO effect on whether the AGM-45 performs the LOFT ATTACK guidance enable logic or the DIRECT ATTACK guidance enable logic. This can be the source of much confusion.

You could choose LOFT on the LABS/WRCS knob, and fire a DIRECT ATTACK shrike, it will then enable guidance 3 seconds after launch, and pull down out of its loft to track the target it sees.

You could choose DIRECT on the LABS/WRCS knob and fire a LOFT ATTACK shrike, it will then follow the LOFT ATTACK guidance enable logic detailed above, enabling below 18,000 feet and after detecting enough of a descent. 

The other thing is there is very little actual automation or computation with either LABS LOFT, or WRCS DIRECT, you are essentially doing all of the planning or in range assessment yourself in these modes. Practice will be necessary and some trial and error to determine what altitudes, loft angles, and ranges will work.

 

Seekers

The following table will help you understand which seeker can sense which radar.

The above table is confirmed guidance for various seekers. Thank you to Jusik for testing which seekers work. MK 37 for SA-3 is not confirmed by testing.

Sources

F-4E-34-1-1 1986/1995

F-4G-34-1-1 1985

AGM-45-7A SHRIKE. FINAL TEST REPORT McMaster; 1977 ( https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/th83m2998 )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqxfNAEkQo8

IRON HAND: Smashing the enemies air defenses, Thornborough; 2001

DCS weapons lua

 

Edited June 5, 2024 by IronMike
Updated WRCS AGM-45

[SmirkingGerbil]

Ahhhh, between the bug for the pickle button via WRCS AGM-45 with Loft (as I understand it), and now this detailed explanation of the differences between LABS loft, and AGM-45 . . .

Thank you!!! I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

Much appreciated.

[sandpatch]

Can this information be input into the manual? 

[AdrianL]

Excellent post.

Cannot help by feel that this should be added, as is, to the manual. Along with 'FAM" flight post. 

Would be very beneficial to everyone.

[IronMike]

34 minutes ago, sandpatch said:

Can this information be input into the manual? 

Will be added, yes.

[uri_ba]

Is there a way to feed an estimated target position for LOFT? So that when the missile guidance is activated, target cood will be in the missile POV. Without too much guess work. (Naturally if radar stay off missile will not guide and hit nothing)

 

And the bang-bang method explain the miss distances on loss of guidance. Thanks!

Edited May 25, 2024 by uri_ba

[Temetre]

Thank you @KlarSnow, this clears up a LOT of questions I had  

[phoenixegmh]

Not sure if a bug but following the above steps, as soon as I press the pickle button on a LOFT delivery, the missiles come straight off the jet...

[QuiGon]

2 hours ago, HB_Painter said:

The seeker

 

The seeker is a passive Radio Frequency seeker that has a 45 degree field of view in DCS and a 150 second operating time

150 seconds after the missile gets activated or 150 seconds after the missile leaves the rail?

[Hawkeye_UK]

What we also need is configuration settings confirmed for Patriot, Hawk, Roland etc.

Note Shrike's real world where setup for Roland attacks.

 

[Backy 51]

Here's a PDF of Klarsnow's excellent info.

 

HB F-4E AGM-45 GUIDE.pdf

[Temetre]

edit: Tbh I think Shrike guidance just might be deeply and utterly bugged. No clue whats going on sometimes.

--------------

vor 2 Stunden schrieb HB_Painter:

The above table is confirmed guidance for various seekers. Thank you to Jusik for testing which seekers work. SA-3 is not confirmed by testing

Idk if that chart is correct.

The Shrikes seekersays MK 49 is required for the SA-6 "straight flush" search radar:

Im getting tone and (buggy) guidance on the SA-6 search radar.

 

Frankly tho, my tests and others indicate that Shrike guidance is just deeply and utterly bugged. Sometimes they give tone and guide, but only sometimes, lofting Shrikes dont activate at all for me, search radars sometimes only get tracked during active engagement (and not during search). Sometimes they track only long range, or only short range. Idk if there is some hidden complexity to explain any of that.

Edited May 25, 2024 by Temetre

[CaptPickguard]

3 hours ago, HB_Painter said:

You could choose DIRECT on the LABS/WRCS knob and fire a LOFT ATTACK shrike, it will then follow the LOFT ATTACK guidance enable logic detailed above, enabling below 18,000 feet and after detecting enough of a descent. 

Does this mean you could fire from below 18000 feet downwards and it would activate guidance, or does it have to fly a bit over 18000 feet first for the guidance to activate? If the latter, for how long?

[Katsu]

1 hour ago, QuiGon said:

150 seconds after the missile gets activated or 150 seconds after the missile leaves the rail?

This question is VERY important because it could be the reason why majority of players are getting their launches failed. 

And it changes a lot of the operation,because you will have a limited window of time to seach for the threat.

[Temetre]

vor 3 Minuten schrieb Katsu:

This question is VERY important because it could be the reason why majority of players are getting their launches failed. 

And it changes a lot of the operation,because you will have a limited window of time to seach for the threat.

I found plenty issues in the first 2 minutes of a mission tbh

[KlarSnow]

On 5/25/2024 at 8:47 AM, QuiGon said:

150 seconds after the missile gets activated or 150 seconds after the missile leaves the rail?

150 seconds after it leaves the rail. The 150 seconds is seeker operation time. The missiles battery is not fired until you press the pickle button, that is what engages the 150 second timer.

 

there is a bug right now where if you reload missiles or change seekers using the rearm dialog in game, the shrikes will not guide. They only function correctly at the moment if they are on the jet at mission start, loaded by the mission editor. This could be a major reason for why people are having a lot of trouble with them.

 

a couple of other notes:

the tone you hear from the shrikes is always from the left most selected shrike on the jet, this is correct.

This is also the firing order, if you have multiple shrikes selected they always fire left to right off the jet.

there is a small bug where the left outboard pylon fires the shrike as a rail launched missile and the other three fire it as a ejector launched missile. They should all be rail launched, so seeing one missile fly straight ahead while the other three all drop after launch should be fixed at some point (all four should fire straight ahead and not drop away)

for the question about putting a location to calculate a loft, this is what WRCS AGM-45 does, but it is not correctly functioning right now. You may have some success with it you may not. When it is functioning correctly I will update the above with how it works.

The Shrike can only pull 3G 's with its fins when it is guiding. It is not very maneuverable. You really need it to be on a ballistic trajectory to the target, and it cannot correct gross guidance errors very well at all.

Edited May 27, 2024 by KlarSnow

[KlarSnow]

As to the questions about shrike seeker bands and what they can/cannot see. If you look into the Lua files you can see the actual frequency ranges of the various threats and emitters, by comparing those to the shrike seeker bands that are presented in the seeker selection dialog you can start to parse together what each shrike seeker can/cannot see. The label for the seeker is what it was designed to target, but there can be other things that overlap the designed seeker band and may also be able to be tracked. This is what the chart above represents based on firing them. 

There could be and probably are bugs, but so far based on looking at the in game luas of what the target radars actual frequencies are, and firing them against matching seekers, it so far has matched exactly in my testing.

 

[gnomechild]

3 hours ago, KlarSnow said:

 

there is a bug right now where if you reload missiles or change seekers using the rearm dialog in game, the shrikes will not guide. They only function correctly at the moment if they are on the jet at mission start, loaded by the mission editor. This could be a major reason for why people are having a lot of trouble with them.

This should be bold face at the top of this post tbh. This more or less guarantees they will be bugged for anyone trying to use them in multiplayer 

[njoyyoursalad]

After reading "shoot it straight down the throat" I have a mental image of the AGM-45 that is now permanently burned into my memory.

But jokes aside, thanks for the guide, this is very helpful. 

One question though, shouldn't the chart for the Mark 49 mod 0 and mod 1 have the SA-8 checked? Both of those seekers work on it.
I think those two seekers also work on SA-6 but I have not personally confirmed that. 

[IronMike]

22 minutes ago, njoyyoursalad said:

After reading "shoot it straight down the throat" I have a mental image of the AGM-45 that is now permanently burned into my memory.

But jokes aside, thanks for the guide, this is very helpful. 

One question though, shouldn't the chart for the Mark 49 mod 0 and mod 1 have the SA-8 checked? Both of those seekers work on it.
I think those two seekers also work on SA-6 but I have not personally confirmed that. 

The chart only presents community tested confirmation + SA-3, not how it is or would supposed to be. Aka, if you do as in the chart, your shrikes should guide, confirmed by others.

[Temetre]

vor 8 Minuten schrieb IronMike:

The chart only presents community tested confirmation + SA-3, not how it is or would supposed to be. Aka, if you do as in the chart, your shrikes should guide, confirmed by others.

When I tested it, the SA-6 wasnt engaged by the -25 seeker, but by the -49 heads. Idk whats going on tbh. Mb some bug cuz the SA-6 technically has two radars? A search and a tracking radar.

[IronMike]

8 minutes ago, Temetre said:

When I tested it, the SA-6 wasnt engaged by the -25 seeker, but by the -49 heads. Idk whats going on tbh. Mb some bug cuz the SA-6 technically has two radars? A search and a tracking radar.

Think of it like this: what is in the table above, has worked at least once. Minus the SA-3, which in that table is not confirmed. You probably need to chuck 12 or so shrikes at it, and then one will guide. But yours may also be falling short, etc. It depends on many things.

[Kev2go]

will the F4E be getting the AGM-45B shrike later in EA? It has a new motor increasing its range over earlier A model.

[Wizz]

No matter what I do, in direct mode I can't get the Shrikes to track. I've tried the SA2 and SA6 radars, and using the correct seeker heads (Mk 25 and 49 respectively), and have tried all kinds of attack profiles. I'm getting good tone in all shoots, I'm firing well within the range and from various altitudes and angles - the missiles just won't track for me...

Edit: I just tried a Mk 25 seeker on the SA6, and although I got no tone both tracked and killed the radar. Something is obviously borked here and needs looking at.

Edited May 26, 2024 by Wizz

[3000 Black Jets of Allah]

4 hours ago, Wizz said:

No matter what I do, in direct mode I can't get the Shrikes to track. I've tried the SA2 and SA6 radars, and using the correct seeker heads (Mk 25 and 49 respectively), and have tried all kinds of attack profiles. I'm getting good tone in all shoots, I'm firing well within the range and from various altitudes and angles - the missiles just won't track for me...

Edit: I just tried a Mk 25 seeker on the SA6, and although I got no tone both tracked and killed the radar. Something is obviously borked here and needs looking at.

 

I was finding the same yesterday, the Mk 25 will not get tone, but will track an SA-6 in search mode, while the Mk 49 will get tone, but will ONLY track if the radar is in track mode, if the SA-6 is searching the Mk49s (both Mods) won't track.