GBU12s - Right time to fire the laser in low alt?

[eFirehawk]

Hello everyone,

 

I've made up a mission in which I am required to stay below 5,000ft MSL, which is roughly the same as the radar altitude since it's near the ocean. I've loaded my A-10C with a number of GBU-12s and I've been having problems to hit the tanks. When I drop them from above 12,000ft as I usually do, firing the laser anywhere from 8 to 12 seconds to impact works very well , however if I drop them from below 5,000ft it starts to get tricky, many times the bomb runs out of energy before reaching the target so it hits the ground a few hundred feet before it , and sometimes ( not sure but this is what I believe might have happened ) if I fire the laser too late the laser point on the ground might end up outside of the bombs seekerhead "boresight" so it will never catch the laser and just fly a ballistic trajectory. Does anybody know if there's anything I can do to improve my accuracy dropping GBU-12s from a low altitude ( Angels 3 to 5 ) and level flight?

 

Thanks!

[Dejjvid]

Use Latch on TGP and fire the laser right after weapon release. Also designate with HUD TDC and use CCRP delivery, CCIP or CCIP 3/9 CR so you can dive down, designate, pull up and "toss*" the GBU-12 when the release cue passes through.

 

* I know some besserwisser is gonna come whining if i don't add a lol to this statement. *lol*

Edited November 12, 2013 by Dejjvid

[BIGNEWY]

Fire the laser straight away,

 

but if it was me I would switch to a different payload, GBU 38 (gps guided) for statics targets and mk82 air for low fast attacks on moving targets, or indeed mavericks :)

[Cibit]

Or CBU's:music_whistling:

[MTFDarkEagle]

As newy said.

When low-level I will always use Mk82's. When on the deck high drag's.

[Panthro]

Yeah, MK82 for this one and it would keep the virtual bean counters happy too

[Grinch]

This makes me wonder if "bang-bang" guidance is modeled. ED Testers?

 

Edit: Nevermind, I can go watch a LGB in F6.

[Dejjvid]

Yes, the GBU-12 is using bang-bang in game.

[amollen]

If you don't care about the virtual beancounters and still want to use GBU's from 5000 feet...

 

.... yet another option is to set auto-lase on and at a reasonable value, say 8-10 seconds. If the fall time is less than the auto-lase time, the laser will turn on right away after you drop.

[eFirehawk]

I've tried dumping them with the laser firing and while the bomb does indeed catch the laser it still falls before the target, and it really doesn't seem that the bomb ran out of energy, it just doesn't hit if I'm at low-altitude. Even if I fire the laser later, either the bomb doesn't catch it or it still does the same thing, falling way before the target. :joystick:

[WildBillKelsoe]

however if I drop them from below 5,000ft

 

^ there is your problem. stay above 10,000.

[Dejjvid]

Deliver in CCIP! If you release on target, and fire the laser they will hit.. ;)

[Evil.Bonsai]

Using CCRP mode with -12s, even without the laser, your bomb should be near on top of the target. I just made a quick mission and dropped from about 4300 feet. the 12s are best guided when their nose is more or less pointing at the target. at that altitude, you do not have much time before the bombs hit; for me, it was about 8-10seconds from launch. I watched the bombs fall and their nose was close to pointing at target at about 4-5seconds. So this would be the optimal laser firing time. I tried several times, fired laser about 5s to impact and hit the target each time.