Behavior of Acq Source "Skr?"

[Recluse]

Just a question to confirm a recent observation.

- When firing Hellfire (Kilos) from the Back Seat with a JTAC or other buddy lase, I like to use Acq Source Skr. ("Poor Man's LST")  I used to be able to select Skr? as ACQ Src even when it was in White Text, but lately, it will not let me select it at this point.

- At some point it turns GREEN and is then selectable and works great.

-It goes back to white when no further laser spot is available, but remains selected. If I switch to another ACQ source, it is again un-selectable.

- From the above, I am pretty sure that  that currently SKr?  is not selectable as an ACQ Src until there is actually a laser spot within LOS (and range?) for the Hellfire Seeker to pick up.

Is this accurate or am I missing something else with switchology or settings? Also if true, does anyone know the constraints involved in being able to select this (i.e distance from laser spot, etc?)

 

EDIT: Reading up on the SKR as ACQ source in the manual, it seems that indeed it is mainly used to slave the Sight to the Next to Shoot based on the missile seeker, (in the back seat, SIGHT being PHS) so I guess the seeker DOES have to be seeing a Laser.  Previous behavior of being able to select the Skr?  without a spot was likely wrong.

Edited April 28 by Recluse

[LorenLuke]

On 4/28/2025 at 4:01 AM, Recluse said:

Just a question to confirm a recent observation.

- When firing Hellfire (Kilos) from the Back Seat with a JTAC or other buddy lase, I like to use Acq Source Skr. ("Poor Man's LST")  I used to be able to select Skr? as ACQ Src even when it was in White Text, but lately, it will not let me select it at this point.

- At some point it turns GREEN and is then selectable and works great.

-It goes back to white when no further laser spot is available, but remains selected. If I switch to another ACQ source, it is again un-selectable.

- From the above, I am pretty sure that  that currently SKr?  is not selectable as an ACQ Src until there is actually a laser spot within LOS (and range?) for the Hellfire Seeker to pick up.

Is this accurate or am I missing something else with switchology or settings? Also if true, does anyone know the constraints involved in being able to select this (i.e distance from laser spot, etc?)

 

EDIT: Reading up on the SKR as ACQ source in the manual, it seems that indeed it is mainly used to slave the Sight to the Next to Shoot based on the missile seeker, (in the back seat, SIGHT being PHS) so I guess the seeker DOES have to be seeing a Laser.  Previous behavior of being able to select the Skr?  without a spot was likely wrong.

Not 100% sure, I think SKR becomes available when a hellfire is in a LOBL mode, and either points to where it's seeing the laser energy or, for a Longbow hellfire, the target on which it has an RF MISSILE TRACK.

[flanker0ne]

In very very short, SKR can't be "armed" (ready for) before the actual Laser/Radar being spotted by the missile.

[ShuRugal]

To expand, any ACQ source with a question mark (?) can't be activated from the ACQ menu.  the question mark indicates that the system does not know which of multiple sources of that type to select.

For an example of this, look also at the behaviour of the TSD-point ACQ type.  If you have not bugged a TSD point yet, then the ACQ menu will show a 'STR?'.  Once you select a point from the points menu in the TSD, however, that 'STR?' symbol will be replaced with the name of the point you selected, and you can then quickly switch back to it from the ACQ menu if you switch away to another source.

[louza]

You are right: the seeker must pick up a valid laser (within its field and range) for "SKR?" to become "SKR" (green) and selectable as the ACQ source.

 

_{Mini Militia App Lock}

Edited June 1 by louza

[Amarok_73]

Some time ago it was possible to "preselect" SKR in ACQ, and as soon, as the laser spot was caught by the seeker, the crosshair was placed over the lased target. Right now, the way to overcome the limtation that came with change of this behavior, is just to observe the rectangle that follows to some extent the pilot's head, and as soon as it became large and solid, we have the indication that the laser has been spot by the Hellfire's seeker. This moment we know, that it should be possible to switch ACQ on the SKR. I once saw a thread somewhere where @NeedzWD40 explained it quite comprehensively, but I still have hard moments with getting the point, why the dotted cross can't appear automatically, without having to "hunt" for the moment when it becomes possible to turn it on. If it would work as it was initialy implemented, it was pretty natural, that selecting the SKR prior to getting the spot, pilot (or CP/G) declares he has need to see the crosshair as soon as the laser is spotted by sensors. Such behavior rather contributes to improving situational awareness and shooting precision.
Apparently something deeper must be escaping my overview of the subject.

[Recluse]

16 minutes ago, Amarok_73 said:

Some time ago it was possible to "preselect" SKR in ACQ, and as soon, as the laser spot was caught by the seeker, the crosshair was placed over the lased target.

Yup!!!  That's where I was going with my original post. It seemed to me at the time that it made sense.  Kind of like a "poor man's laser spot tracker" similar to how you use the Laser seeker on a Maverick-E which starts scanning even before there is a spot to find. Just as you describe and where my head is at!!

Quote

but I still have hard moments with getting the point, why the dotted cross can't appear automatically, without having to "hunt" for the moment when it becomes possible to turn it on. If it would work as it was initialy implemented, it was pretty natural, that selecting the SKR prior to getting the spot, pilot (or CP/G) declares he has need to see the crosshair as soon as the laser is spotted by sensors. Such behavior rather contributes to improving situational awareness and shooting precision.

Quote

Right now, the way to overcome the limtation that came with change of this behavior, is just to observe the rectangle that follows to some extent the pilot's head, and as soon as it became large and solid, we have the indication that the laser has been spot by the Hellfire's seeker. This moment we know, that it should be possible to switch ACQ on the SKR

I will have to try this. Generally we get some external information that there is a buddy/JTAC/FAC lase, so there is another cue to make SKR the ACQ Source

[ShuRugal]

On 7/23/2025 at 3:26 PM, Amarok_73 said:

but I still have hard moments with getting the point, why the dotted cross can't appear automatically, without having to "hunt" for the moment when it becomes possible to turn it on. If it would work as it was initialy implemented, it was pretty natural, that selecting the SKR prior to getting the spot, pilot (or CP/G) declares he has need to see the crosshair as soon as the laser is spotted by sensors.

I'm just guessing here, but my guess would be that the systems which handle ACQ data and generate the ACQ symbology do not talk to the system which monitors whether the missile is in launch parameters, and therefore selecting the seeker as ACQ before the missile locks the laser would result in the ACQ cross running all over the display as the missile scans for a laser?

Edited Friday at 04:35 PM by ShuRugal