[WAD] 1436 F18s Turning on Radar When Firing Harpoons

[Tred]

Hi folks,

New behavior in latest patch: My F18s automatically turn on their radar when firing Harpoon II missiles. You can't get them to shut it off, either.

Thanks

Test.7z

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[caelunshun]

Same issue as here: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... p?t=402524

This was introduced in 1328.17. In the latest betas the issue has been partially resolved (in particular, most of the time with CEC or IRST you can prevent the radar from being forced).

My suggested solution is to stop units from ever forcibly turning on their sensors if the "Unit obeys EMCON" box is unchecked, i.e., unchecking the box should give full control to the human player.

[blu3s]

In this case, since the Harpoon receives midcourse updates from the F-18, the F-18 needs to be able to track the ship on its own, which is why it turns on the radar.

My suggested solution is to stop units from ever forcibly turning on their sensors if the "Unit obeys EMCON" box is unchecked, i.e., unchecking the box should give full control to the human player.

Something in this regard will be added in the future.

[Tred]

In this case, since the Harpoon receives midcourse updates from the F-18, the F-18 needs to be able to track the ship on its own, which is why it turns on the radar.

Ah. Okay, thanks blu3. I had no idea that Harpoon's get midcourse guidance too. I just assumed they did not since they never did in the game (that is, I could fire from aircraft without ever having them turn on their radar to get a lock on their own).

In the latest update I see that the same thing is now happening with my F18's firing AGM-84 SLAM-ER missiles, where they did not used to do so. Is this a feature of that missile too, I didn't know about?

And does anyone know why it is not also the case with F16's firing AGM 158 JASSM missiles yet in the game? Do they not require mid-course guidance too? Is there a place online anyone suggest, where I can read which missiles do and do not require midcourse guidance by the firing aircraft?

Thanks.

[Tred]

Same issue as here: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... p?t=402524

This was introduced in 1328.17. In the latest betas the issue has been partially resolved (in particular, most of the time with CEC or IRST you can prevent the radar from being forced).

My suggested solution is to stop units from ever forcibly turning on their sensors if the "Unit obeys EMCON" box is unchecked, i.e., unchecking the box should give full control to the human player.

Thanks for sharing this link.

I agree, it will be nice to get back full control of this if it's unnecessary for the human player. It's messed me up a couple of times in some scenarios of mine where I assumed I could still fire without lighting up the target by the firing aircraft.

[Dimitris]

And does anyone know why it is not also the case with F16's firing AGM 158 JASSM missiles yet in the game? Do they not require mid-course guidance too? Is there a place online anyone suggest, where I can read which missiles do and do not require midcourse guidance by the firing aircraft?

If the target is a static facility (which is usually the case with JASSM) the launching aircraft does not need to transmit any targeting/guidance updates after launch; the missile already knows where exactly it needs to go.

[Tred]

If the target is a static facility (which is usually the case with JASSM) the launching aircraft does not need to transmit any targeting/guidance updates after launch; the missile already knows where exactly it needs to go.

Thanks, Dimitris. Makes sense. But what about mobile targets? Does JASSM not have the same requirements for non-fixed targets as Harpoon and SLAM-ER's?

[blu3s]

JASSM has INS + Passive IR so there is no data link to maintain. As you can see in the DB viewer you can check the different types of guidance. Where there's a datalink involved, the parent unit (or the guiding one if is CEC capable) needs to have a good tracking by itself of the target position.



I agree that the player should have options to launch these weapons without datalink and that if the target changes position, tough luck. But it used to happen that if the target changed position, the datalink corrected the missile trajectory when the guiding unit had no idea where the target was, that's why this change was implemented (it was reported here by a user in fact).

It is true that some aspects still need to be polished.

[Tred]

I agree that the player should have options to launch these weapons without datalink and that if the target changes position, tough luck. But it used to happen that if the target changed position, the datalink corrected the missile trajectory when the guiding unit had no idea where the target was, that's why this change was implemented (it was reported here by a user in fact).

It is true that some aspects still need to be polished.

Thank you for clarifying it all for me.