Ka's Wingmen or Supermen?

[BiBa]

It's a good thing to have effective Ka-50 strike capabilities, (referred to their programming) but not to the extent to go over the plausibility of common sense! These critics are based on self programed missions, where all wingmen parameters are well defined/known (Weapon type, distance from target etc).

 

Their recognition speed of targets and destroying them is an amazing real piece of work! I'm talking here about receiving COM reports of target hits on a 3 seconds frequency basis! At long distance where every experienced pilot knows how much time is needed to enlarge the SHKVAL FOV for target recognition, slewing and zooming it, let alone the "Time On Target" needed for the laser guided 9A4172 missile to reach its target, then after all it's not a Fire & Forget weapon to be shot like a machinegun! It's such an event that spoils the simulation reality, by giving you the impression of wasting your time in a boy's Game. :joystick:

 

A Pledge to the programmers:

I'm aware of the programming complexity in defining the right algorithms for a minimum of simulation virtuality, but the parameter of the time needed for a laser guided missile is well defined, and at least THAT should be embedded in the "firing sequence", so that the next missile is not to be fired before the prior has reached its destiny, with at least 3 second delay and more depending on the distance of the next one for slewing, caging and lasing the target.

 

Keep on the labor with the good work

[Sylvan]

I agree wholeheartedly! And our opponents seem pretty quick on the trigger as well. It seems the second they get eyes on even a single rotor blade they start acquiring and getting ready to fire. There should be some form of delay at least.

[Fri13]

KA-50 "suffers" from same problem as Su-25T, it is just too effective.

 

I mean playing with a friend who flies A-10C has find that I kill too quickly hard targets.

 

Examples:

 

With Su-25T I can with one run from 7-10 kilometer range destroy 4x MBT (T-90 or M1A1) and possible 1-2x optional targets (SAM/SPAAG covering MBT) until I am almost top of them and then I pull up to 2km altitude.

 

With KA-50 from 10km range I can destroy 4 hard targets (T-90 or M1A1) in less than 40 seconds and then engage soft targets (BMP-1, trucks, radars) with cannon at close range (<3km).

 

With Su-25T I feel it is too easy to fly and attack, even when it is flying deep to enemy area trough their SAM/SPAAG networks, belly almost scratching MBT commander hatches and firing with 23mm cannons every soft target what just is at front of me.

 

With KA-50 the thing applies as well but problem is the bug that trees do not offer cover so missiles fly trough them at you or you could fly trough them (what brakes immersion as I feel fool when I remember this after scared spirit out of me when I suddenly notice there is a single tree front of me after corner of forest / hill at mountains when flying 250km/h at 2-3m altitude and I just pass trough it second later).

 

So far I have not yet flied with a KA-50 wingman as I have found Mi-8MTv2 wingmens behavior a bad one and I don't want to baby sit someone to engage specific targets or avoid them shooting targets what isn't a threat or important for mission (don't really know how KA-50 AI works in most situations) or they would pop-up in situation where I just want to stay very low and "quiet".

[ShuRugal]

The only real "cheating" the AI does is in target spotting. Aside from that, an AI plane/helicopter is generally only average or slightly better than average with engagement skills.

 

 

KA-50 "suffers" from same problem as Su-25T, it is just too effective.

 

This may appear to be the problem, but it's more a case of the way the aircraft are employed. Comparing the KA-50 and SU-25T to the A-10C is comparing three very different flying styles. All three aircraft are capable of dishing out a serious load of destruction, it all comes down to how you fly them.

 

The KA-50 has practically no defense against SHORAD units. The only way to survive in a SHORAD environment is by making yourself a hard target and killing the AD unit before it kills you. Since the KA-50 has only laser sensors, there is almost never any warning of tracking or launch, which means you probably wont know the SHORAD is there until it starts shooting at you. The result of this is that as your flying experience increases, you will learn first how to minimize your exposure time to AD units, and second how to maximize your kill output in that time. For example, the way I set up my runs in a SHOARD environment is to identify AD threats between myself and the target and plan my approach such that i can start by picking off the AD, the lay my remaining vikhrs on the main objective, and finish off any soft targets with rockets or cannon before I egress. In this way, I regularly make 6-10 kills per run in a crowded zone.

 

In the SU 25T, you have better awareness of SHORAD units, thanks to RWR, and the ability to decoy radar threats as well as IR threats, thanks to chaff dispensers. However, the frogfoot can only get sensors on a target it is flying directly towards, which means, again, that pilots must be able to engage targets in rapid succession, or risk loosing track of them. I am not well-practiced with the 25, but I could see a skilled pilot racking up ~4 vikhr kills and a hand-full of cannon/rocket kills in a single pass.

 

The A-10C, on the other hand, has very good threat detection compared to either of the other platforms mentioned above: RWR alerts to radar threats, MWS alerts to missile launch of any kind, and the CMS can even be programmed to automatically release countermeasures for the type of threat encountered. It takes a serious AD umbrella (at least in DCS) to make an A-10C pilot start shaking.

In addition to this, the AN/AAQ-28 for the A-10C make it possible to keep sensors on a target area continuously, regardless of relative heading, altitude, or even cloud cover. Combine this with SADL datalink, free JTAC target spotting, and a whole slew of PGMS, and anyone with half an hours practice can hang their A-10 on autopilot at angels-10 and take as long as they like to find targets and pick them off one at a time.

 

The amusing thing about this: the A-10 is capable of dispatching more units in a single pass than any other aircraft in DCS. My personal record for kills in a single run was 6 mavericks followed by a quartet of CBU-97 on staggered release set for 300-foot intervals. The result was approximately 20 kills, a mix of tanks, BMPs, and support units. But many pilots rely on the ability to hang back and rain down mavericks from 6 or 7 miles out.