BOMARC Corrections

[Ping Jockey]

Edited to add: Mods, I realized too late that this belongs in the Mods/Request forum under CWDB. Unfortunately the forum is not letting me copy & post there. If you could move it, that would be appreciated. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Changes need to be made to the BOMARC missiles and their launch facilities in the Cold War Database. Please excuse the length of the post.

THE MISSILES
#665 CIM-10A Bomarc
#1547 CIM-10B Bomarc
#1548 CIM-10A Bomarc
#1549 CIM-10B Bomarc
For starters, even though it’s not part of the official designator, we really need something to indicate which of these weapons have nuclear and which have conventional warheads. On the main Unit Weapons, Magazine Status and Weapons Status screens there is nothing to indicate warhead type, but at least you can click links to find out. However, on the Weapons Allocation screen there is no way of telling which type you are launching.
Obviously, if nuclear release has not been granted, the Weapons Allocation screen won’t allow you unleash the kilotons. However, any CONUS defense scenario involving Bomarc would probably invoke nuclear release.
I recommend indicators for both conventional and nuclear warhead missiles, rather than just a nuclear indicator for two reasons: First, conventional warheads were not the default, with the nukes being a special variant; The nuclear version was more common. Secondly, there was no conventional-warhead of the Bomarc B. The entry for #1549 CIM-10B Bomarc should be flagged as “Hypothetical”.
Unless otherwise noted, the following changes should be made to all four of the Bomarc missile types:

GENERAL DATA
Cruise Altitude for the CIM-10A should be 65,000 ft
Cruise Altitude for the CIM-10B should be 100,000 ft
I’m not sure if not having a setting entered is affecting the flight profile in the model. Currently the missiles climb slowly from launch all the way to intercept. What they should do is ascend very rapidly to the cruise altitude and then fly at that altitude toward the predicted intercept point.
Guidance Type should be All-Aspect and Datalink (DL/INS) mid-course plus Active Radar Homing (ARH) terminal guidance.

SENSORS / EW
Replace the “SARH Seeker” with “1x Active Radar Seeker”, Max Range 10 nm, Notes “Weapon Seeker, Active Radar”…
Abilities for CIM-10A should be “Late 1950s Technology”. Abilities for CIM-10B should be “Early 1960s Technology”. Bomarc B had the first operational solid-stated pulse Doppler radar (Westinghouse AN/DPN-53) because the missile dives on its target from high altitude. The Bomarc A’s vacuum tube radar (Westinghouse AN/DPN-34) also dove from above, so it must have had some way of mitigating ground returns. Perhaps a range gate?
...”Air Search, Range Information, Altitude Info, Speed Information, Heading Info.”

Add a box for COMMS / DATALINKS that includes either “Bomarc A datalink” or “Bomarc B” datalink”…
CIM-10A used the AN/GKA-4 frequency division datalink, while the CIM-10B used the AN/GKA-5 time division datalink to give it better ECCM. However, they both used the AN/GRT-3 transmitter, therefore:
…Max Range should be 400 nm for both versions of Bomarc Datalink…
(This is the approximate radio horizon for the Bomarc B at 100,000 ft)
… Supports CEC, LOS-Limited, Secure, UHF Radio.

Functionally, Bomarc had a lot in common with the modern SM6MR. Neither missile requires a director. Rather, both can be fired on information from off-board search radars. Both fly to a predicted intercept point, which is updated via datalink until the missiles’ own radar acquires the target. The main functional difference is that Bomarc was a high altitude cruise missile and the Standard missile is ballistic.

PROPERTIES
Remove the flag that says “Illumintate at Launch”.

PROPULSION
Change the engines to “Rocket Booster, Ramjet Sustainer”….
I don’t know if you have a propulsion type flag “Ramjet”. If not, use “Turbojet” (I’m using the SS-N-22 database entry as a model for this section).
Max Speed for the CIM-10A should be 1605 kts (Mach 2.8 at 65,000 ft)
Max Speed for the CIM-10B should be 1760 kts (Mach 3 at 100,000 ft)
(Bomarc B had improved Marquardt RJ43-MA-7 ramjets)
Your speed-in-knots vs. Mach number calculation may be different from mine. Use the Mach number.

For Performance Data, I do not know what formula you use for the speed vs. altitude calculations or determining the Altitude Bands. However, due to the steep initial climb and the terminal dive you may not need more than 2 range bands. Your call.

FUEL
Type should be “Aviation Fuel”. Use your formula for computing Quantity.

THE LAUNCH FACILITIES

#80 SAM Bty (CIM-10A Bomarc) 28 Launchers
Add a facility: SAM Bty (CIM-10A Bomarc) 56 Launchers

#1672 SAM Bty (CIM-10B Bomarc) 28 Launchers
Add facilities:
SAM Bty (CIM-10B Bomarc) 48 Launchers*
SAM Bty (CIM-10B Bomarc) 56 Launchers
SAM Bty (CIM-10B Bomarc) 84 Launchers
*The Niagara Falls Bomarc site is an odd-ball. Literally every piece of documentation I have found about Bomarc says the bases had either 28 or 56 launcher shelters (plus the McGuire AFB site that added 28 to an existing 56-missile facility for a total of 84) and that Niagara Falls had 56 Bomarc Bs. However, USGS photos I’ve found of the site from 1963 and 1972 clearly show 6 rows of 8 launcher shelters – 48.

Unless otherwise noted, the following changes need to apply to all Bomarc facilities:

GENERAL DATA
The Launching Shelters that housed each Bomarc missile were 19m long and 9 meters wide, with an area of 181 square meters. Their walls were 12” reinforced concrete. However, this was more to contain an explosion from within than to protect from an external blast. The doors that opened to erect the missile were also a vulnerability, so call the General Armor “Light (41 – 90mm RHA)” and the damage points ~150.
The OODA cycle for the CIM-10B is good – It used a solid rocket booster.
The CIM-10A used a liquid fuel rocket booster that required a 2-minute fueling cycle prior to launching.

SENSORS/EW
Delete all entries for sensors in this section.

Add a box for COMMS / DATALINKS that includes either “Bomarc A datalink” or “Bomarc B datalink”, Max Range, 400 nm, Supports CEC, LOS-Limited, Secure, UHF Radio (See above).

Bomarc sites had no radars. The sites had no ability to detect or track targets, nor to order missile launches. Though the Air Force bases where Bomarcs were co-located had search radars, these did not interface directly with Bomarc. Bomarc was controlled by SAGE – the Semi-Autonomous Ground Environment that was the backbone of North American integrated air defense from the late 1950s to the mid 1980s. 26 SAGE command posts were built around the country.
As search radars around the US and Canada (such as the AN/FPS-20 and its successors) detected contacts, they transmitted the range & bearing information via land-line to SAGE. At the SAGE CPs, IBM ANFSQ-7 computers would take consecutive radar returns and build-up tracking data for each contact and display it on the operators’ consoles (an operator could manually enter tracking info, if necessary). Operators could request altitude data for a specific contact, which would cue the height-finding radar (such as the AN/FPS-6) co-located with the air search radar.
Operators at SAGE could then send intercept data via datalink to airborne interceptors such as F-101s, F-102s and F-106s (the F-104 was too small to carry the datalink equipment, so the SAGE operators communicated with them via voice radio).
SAGE operators also controlled Bomarcs via the FSQ-7. SAGE automatically kept an updated status of each missile launcher. When a contact was tagged “hostile”, the operator would have the computer generate an “engagement prediction point” – where the missile intercept would take place. When he pressed the “Fire” button, this information would be sent to the missile. When the missile was fueled (in the case of the Bomarc A) and ready, the missile would launch.
Note that up to this point, all of the communication has been via land-line (government-leased telephone lines). The SAGE site could be hundreds or more miles from the radars and the Bomarc sites (in the first full-up test, a SAGE site at Stewart AFB in New York controlled the launch and intercept of a Bomarc launched from Cape Canaveral, 1,500 miles away).
In effect, the CMANO player is the SAGE operator.
Once launched, SAGE radars tracked the missile and the target, and continuously updated the intercept data (as it did for the manned interceptors, which used a different datalink). Course corrections for the missile were sent by land-line from SAGE to the datalilnk (AN/GKA-4 or 5) at the Ground-to-Air Transmitter (GAT) station near the Bomarc site (for our purposes, part of the facility) and from there transmitted to the missile via radio. When the missile’s radar acquired the target, SAGE would terminate inputs and the bird would guide itself to the detonation point.
The big, big question is, how many channels did the Bomarc datalinks have? How many birds could they keep in the air at once? I have not been able to find this information. One source said that each GAT had multiple channels to communicate with “a number of missiles” in flight. In one test, a three Bomarcs were in the air simultaneously, presumably controlled by the same GAT. I notice that every Bomarc site had a number of missile launchers divisible by 4. I know it’s weak, but my best guess is that the Bomarc A datalink had 4 channels. This is pure speculation, but I think it likely that with the CIM-10B’s much longer range and correspondingly longer flight time, the Bomarc B had more channels – perhaps 8. On the other hand, I could be guessing low. Remember that SAGE had the ability to guide-via-datalink entire squadrons of manned interceptors to their targets; it may have been able to guide squadrons of Bomarcs. I’m sorry I do not have any more solid information about this crucial point, but these numbers should be adequate until more data is found.

MOUNTS / STORES / WEAPONS
The CIM-10A 28-launcher facility lists a 50-50 split between conventional and nuclear Bomarcs. Following this example, the 56-launcher facility would have 28 Bomarc A (Conventional) and 28 Bomarc A (Nuclear) missiles in the launchers.
The CIM-10B facilities would only have Bomarc B (Nuclear) in its launchers.
Delete all 5 vehicle entries (the radars) for both facilities (see above).
Delete the magazines for all Bomarc facilities. The only missiles on-site were those on the launchers. There were no reloads.

[Dimitris]

OPpenheimer? Is that you? [:)]

[.Sirius]

Hi thanks for the in depth detail

[Ping Jockey]

ORIGINAL: Sunburn

OPpenheimer? Is that you? [:)]

Oh dear! Is there someone else who likes to wax loquacious?

Anyway, every time I try to copy & paste it to the CWDB thread, it tells me...
You are not allowed to post links, emails or phone numbers for 7 days from the date of your tenth post.

...which is odd, since those are about the only things that are not included in my post.

Maybe it's trying to help make this a tech support issue!
[:D]

[Ping Jockey]

The changes you made to Bomarc in CWDB 467 are great!

The command guidance based on search radar data and onboard terminal homing works well. Full-range engagements out to ~400nm are fun. So is playing the offense and denying the Bomarcs their search radars (either by jamming, altitude change or nuking the antenna), then changing course and watching the missiles sail on by. [8D]

The flight profile for the missiles still needs work. You changed it so that they climb to altitude quickly, which is good, but there is still no cruise altitude specified for the missiles. This causes the Bomarc to only climb to the altitude of the target. The predicted intercept points update correctly only as long as the missiles have line-of-sight with the datalink at their launch site. At 36,000 feet, the horizon breaks the link at ~220nm. At 12,000 feet, the PIPs stop updating at only ~130nm. I’ve run tests to verify this is happening in the game. I think this is also why the follow-up missiles in multi-bird engagements aren’t re-targeting at longer ranges when their initial targets are destroyed.

Set Cruise Altitude for the CIM-10A (nuclear & conventional) to 65,000 ft
Set Cruise Altitude for the CIM-10B (nuclear & conventional) to 100,000 ft

The facilities you created look excellent., but we need to add one more:

Add a facility: SAM Bty (CIM-10A Bomarc) 56 Launchers. This is like your #3002 “SAM Bty (CIM-10B Bomarc) 56 Launchers”, but instead has 28 CIM-10A (Conventional) and 28 CIM-10A (Nuclear) mounts. 40% of the Bomarc –A sites were this configuration.

#1672 “SAM Bty (CIM-10B Bomarc) 28 Launchers” is listed for Canada (Air Force). The current listing only shows 14 of the required 28 CIM-10B mounts. It also still shows all of the vehicle radar mounts that need to be deleted.

Add 14 x CIM-10B mounts (for a total of 28)
Delete all of the vehicle mounts
Once corrected, this type of facility also needs to be listed for United States (Air Force). Half of all of the US Bomarc sites (and 75% of the US Bomarc-B sites) were this configuration.

Thanks again for your hard work and commitment to accuracy. [&o]
I should have the Nike Hercules recommendations ready in the next couple of weeks.
Cheers!

[Ping Jockey]

Bump for the previous message (which had extra corrections) since .Sirius may be fiddling with US SAMs soon. [;)]

[T Rav]

The level of fidelity is amazing. I learn something new every day.