How do you attack te attack convoys?

[BKLronin]

I wondered how others do this.

 

In Devils Cross first mission for example there are more than one convoys. I usually use 4x cbu97 and 6 mavs. I don't like using the mavericks for tanks or other armored targets instead I try tto get them al with the CBUs. I cleared that missin once with 100% but had to respawn as far as can remember. Mavs are reserved for any kind of sams or aaa. The last time I was unable to clear all convoys with the CBU97. Going down with the gau resulted in heavy damage on my side.

 

Any Ideas? CBUs are forbidden in rl AFAIK. How do real A10 pilots clear a convoy then?

[sobek]

CBUs are forbidden in rl AFAIK.

 

USA has not signed that treaty. They still use cluster bombs.

[BKLronin]

USA has not signed that treaty.

 

As always :D

[Helios]

Was trying out this mission yesterday; as I did the mission I looked up the CBU-97 on wikipedia. Supposedly (according to that article at least) it is an "intelligent" free-falling bomb which will search for armored targets in the blast area and home in on those targets. Supposedly it will explode the projectiles that don't find a target while they are still up in the air, in order to avoid leaving (as many) unexploded pieces.

 

So this is supposedly a "cleaner" bomb than CBU-87, and sounds like it should be fairly effective against armored targets when dropping the bomb "close enough". Then again, this may all just be marketing gibberish to make the bomb sound friendlier and deadlier than it actually is, or someone could have dreamed the whole thing and written a piece of wiki-fiction ;-)

 

According to Wikipedia costs $360.000 per bomb, about twice the cost of a maverick.

[BKLronin]

I can´t imagine that the clusters are homing onto targets, that also means they can´t decide by themselfs to explode or not. Strange.

 

The question of this thread was originally meant more like. "What is your most effective way to clear convoys?"

 

Sorry was a bit unprecise there. I mainly spare the mavs for AntiAir threats cause I never how how many of them are out there. I didn´t had any cost of them in mind.

 

Thx for the replys anyway.

[sobek]

will search for armored targets in the blast area and home in on those targets.

 

It does not home in on targets. What it does is it fires it submunition skeets tumbling out in a spread pattern and if a skeet detects it is flying over a target then it fires an explosively formed penetrator.

 

There is no active homing in on targets, though.

[BKLronin]

How does it detect that? Heat signature?

 

Crazy Weapon developers.

[MTFDarkEagle]

Could be heat signature, but I doubt it. What I would think is that it detects the vibrations of the engine(s) perhaps?

[KillaALF]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBU-97_Sensor_Fuzed_Weapon

 

"The 40 Skeets scan an area of 1,500 feet (460 m) by 500 feet (150 m) using infrared and laser sensors, seeking targets by pattern-matching."

 

http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app5/wcmd.html

 

"Each Skeet falls independently, scanning the ground with its IR sensor for the signature of a tank."

[rextar]

If im right the ones that dont find a target stay armed when they land?

Or is that another cluster munition.

[BKLronin]

Thats pretty much awesome. Incredible how much technology is wasted with a single CBU drop. Imagine some kind of rocket pod with dozens of seeking missiles in it, hitting a hole convoy with one shot from behind a hill.

[GGTharos]

They self destruct after some time or on impact.

 

If im right the ones that dont find a target stay armed when they land?

Or is that another cluster munition.

[GGTharos]

And who's going to aim the rockets at the convoy? There's no technology wasted there.

 

Thats pretty much awesome. Incredible how much technology is wasted with a single CBU drop. Imagine some kind of rocket pod with dozens of seeking missiles in it, hitting a hole convoy with one shot from behind a hill.

[Depth]

They self destruct after some time or on impact.

There is around a 30% chance that the bomblets do not explode when not finding a target, and because of the autodetonation they remain extremely unstable. In short, there are less undetonated bomblets left behind by a smart cluster weapon but they are more likely to cause civilian casualties later on.

[sobek]

There is around a 30% chance that the bomblets do not explode when not finding a target, and because of the autodetonation they remain extremely unstable. In short, there are less undetonated bomblets left behind by a smart cluster weapon but they are more likely to cause civilian casualties later on.

 

30% sounds way too high, you sure about the numbers?

[BKLronin]

And who's going to aim the rockets at the convoy? There's no technology wasted there.

 

A chopper, they could replace the unguided rockets and have the opportunity that the convoy has absoloutely no time to react on the attack.

 

With wasted I meant that it is incredible how much technology is used to bomb targets with clusters.

[GGTharos]

And is this from some study about cluster bombs in general, or the CBU-97 in particular?

 

There is around a 30% chance that the bomblets do not explode when not finding a target, and because of the autodetonation they remain extremely unstable. In short, there are less undetonated bomblets left behind by a smart cluster weapon but they are more likely to cause civilian casualties later on.

[GGTharos]

How does the chopper know where they are? ... the rockets need some 'hint' too to know not to activate their payload too early or too late.

 

A chopper, they could replace the unguided rockets and have the opportunity that the convoy has absoloutely no time to react on the attack.

 

With wasted I meant that it is incredible how much technology is used to bomb targets with clusters.

[RodBorza]

Leaving the CBU conversation aside, a good way to clear convoys is to hit the front tank/truck with Mavericks and when the chaos ensues, drop the CBUs.

But it has to be done fairly quickly, firing a MAV, and coming around for a CBU pass, because in the sim the enemy regroup after a while and keeps moving if you are too slow.

[BKLronin]

How does the chopper know where they are? ... the rockets need some 'hint' too to know not to activate their payload too early or too late.

 

I'ḿ not a weapon engineer but a clusterrocket pod would be very useful.

 

Mounted on a Blackshark targetpattern recognition via TV. Fire and forget. The Rockets than home in on target just like the CBU bomblets do via heat or whatever.

[GGTharos]

CBU's don't really home in on anything. They just detonate when they happen to sense heat right in their narrow straw-like FoV - they don't look for the target, it just happens to come across it because the puck is spinning.

 

It's like setting off a trip-wire, nothing more. There's no guidance whatsoever.

You're making some unrealistic assumptions about weapons. And what 'target pattern recognition' via TV? The Shkval doesn't do anything like that at all.

[BKLronin]

Man you are really complicated. :P

 

I just want a clusterrocketpod, itś fictional so no need to investigate it technically (I know was the shkval can do ). Thans for clarifing the CBU anyway. So itś not that much hightech in there. So no heat detection laser or anything?

[genbrien]

There you go :thumbup:

[GGTharos]

Man you are really complicated. :P

 

I try :P

 

I just want a clusterrocketpod, itś fictional so no need to investigate it technically (I know was the shkval can do ). Thans for clarifing the CBU anyway. So itś not that much hightech in there. So no heat detection laser or anything?

 

Sure it detects heat, and something or other with the laser (not sure what it is the laser does exactly, that'd be neat to find out) but there's no seeking. There's no active 'ok I'm looking for a target now. ok I lock on' ... it's just 'heat detected' *BANG*. The reason it can 'see' a relatively large area is because the puck is spinning, and the sensor is mounted on it and thus gets 'swept' across that area just because of the motion of the puck.

[RodBorza]

I try :P

 

 

 

Sure it detects heat, and something or other with the laser (not sure what it is the laser does exactly, that'd be neat to find out)

 

I believe the laser to be the tripwire, a very clever one.

Logic:

Heat + "tripwire" = KA-BOOM!!!