Destroying ships with AGM-65Ds

[Alexrey]

Hey guys,

 

I played a mission today that involved some ships with AA capabilities. I wanted to destroy them with some AGM-65Ds but just couldn't do it. I could lock the ships up on the Mav video screen, but once fired they would never destroy the ship, and instead would land just next to them. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

 

Cheers,

Alexrey

[159th_Viper]

Track?

[skoner]

generally, ships have great durabilty. so you can't just take them out by single shot...

[kylania]

We saw the same behavior the other night. Mavs would simply splash on the water's surface no matter which part of the ship you hit. The only thing that seemed to do damage was JDAMs.

[EtherealN]

Have you tried using Force Correlate to ensure the missile aims at a particular part of the ship, as opposed to the "centre" which, since a ship is partially submerged, may not be above the surface.

[Nate--IRL--]

Also try a Heavy warhead MAV - the D is a smaller warhead than the G or K IIRC.

 

Nate

[MagnumHB]

As far as I have seen, only civilian ships (tanker, transports, yacht) can be destroyed with a single D/H model Maverick. Also, in my experience, the Molniya corvette generally (always?) requires more than a single G/K Maverick to sink it, as does the frigate. When possible, it's best to hit combat ships with GBU-10/31 for one-hit kills depending on what's available and whether the ship is moving or not.

 

For the problem of weapons missing the ship due to its irregular shape, you can use force correlate on G/H/K Mavericks, or attack from a frontal/rear aspect to give the seeker/TGP a view of a solid "surface" instead of possible gaps in the superstructure.

[kylania]

Have you tried using Force Correlate to ensure the missile aims at a particular part of the ship, as opposed to the "centre" which, since a ship is partially submerged, may not be above the surface.

 

No, but you'll clearly see it hit the ship's superstructure, disappear and a small white water splash happens center of the ship at the waterline. Hitting it in the bow results in the same thing.

 

Drop a JDAM on it though, anywhere and explosions galore. Even Mav Ds from four separate planes didn't result in any explosion, just four splashes.

[Speed]

We saw the same behavior the other night. Mavs would simply splash on the water's surface no matter which part of the ship you hit. The only thing that seemed to do damage was JDAMs.

 

There's nothing wrong with AGM-65Ds and ships other than them just not displaying damage and hits properly. Even though it might look like your missile is missing and splashing right against hte side of the ship, it's hitting the target. Additionally, the ships don't seem to display hits and burned areas like they can with other weapons. The AGM-65D is a very weak missile to be using against ships.

 

Anyway, to prove that nothing is wrong, I set up a mission. Since I have slmod installed, I can directly query the life of a ship named "ship1" using this script:

 

slmod.print(Unit.getByName('ship1'):getLife())

 

 

When I am attacking the USS Carl Vinson with 6X AGM-65Ds, this is what I see in dcs.log:

 

00063.789 DEBUG wWorld::initMissionScripting: 7301

00073.660 WARNING LOG: 31 duplicate message(s) skipped.

00073.660 DEBUG wWorld::initMissionScripting: 6931.3188476563

00074.659 DEBUG wWorld::initMissionScripting: 6561.6376953125

00075.658 DEBUG wWorld::initMissionScripting: 5822.275390625

00076.660 DEBUG wWorld::initMissionScripting: 5082.9130859375

 

So the Carl Vinson starts with 7301 life, and after the maverick attack, it ended with ~5100 life. Another 10-16 maverick Ds would probably be needed to kill it. (I hit it 6 times, but damage reports are separated by 1 second each, and some of my hits occured inside of 1 second within each other).

 

Here's the result of 2X AGM-65K (they have the same warhead as 65Gs, right?):

 

00160.443 DEBUG wWorld::initMissionScripting: 7301

00166.815 WARNING LOG: 11 duplicate message(s) skipped.

00166.815 DEBUG wWorld::initMissionScripting: 6673.5673828125

00168.615 WARNING LOG: 2 duplicate message(s) skipped.

00168.615 DEBUG wWorld::initMissionScripting: 6046.134765625

 

So the final life is 6046. Keep in mind that damage values have quite a bit of randomization in them, but at least in this example, it appears you can pack more anti-ship punch with 6X65D/Hs than 2X 65G/Ks.

[711Hancer]

well according to my silent hunter III :) experience, you have to hit the ship via force correlate and aim on waterline amidst ship not the deck or superstructure. If modelled correctly it may sink with few G/K mav shots but rarely.

Edited October 7, 2011 by 711Hancer

[WildBillKelsoe]

Hey guys,

 

I played a mission today that involved some ships with AA capabilities. I wanted to destroy them with some AGM-65Ds but just couldn't do it. I could lock the ships up on the Mav video screen, but once fired they would never destroy the ship, and instead would land just next to them. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

 

Cheers,

Alexrey

 

Are you very close to the ships? under 5 k??

[pewbeef]

well according to my silent hunter III :) experience, you have to hit the ship via force correlate and aim on waterline amidst ship not the deck or superstructure. If modelled correctly it may sink with few G/K mav shots but rarely.

 

 

nice to see someone else that played/plays SHIII :)

[Specter1606688147]

nice to see someone else that played/plays SHIII :)

 

As far as Sub-Sims go, SHIII was the best. SHIV looked better but they got the US Navy all wrong.

[Depth]

well according to my silent hunter III :) experience, you have to hit the ship via force correlate and aim on waterline amidst ship not the deck or superstructure. If modelled correctly it may sink with few G/K mav shots but rarely.

 

Hence the ancient naval warfare term "Fire in the hull", which much later devolved into "Fire in the hole" :book: