I the attached scenario 20 airplanes from the west take off too intercept a single airplane coming from the east...one or two should be enough.
P.S. It seems to me that this problem emerged in version 1121.4 by solving the problem from the previous (1121.3) version: "Aircraft on air-intercept mission may RTB if their current primary target is not relevant to mission (while other secondary targets still are relevant)"
Try setting the "Maximum # of flights allowed to fly mission" to something other than "No preferences". With the current (1121.4) build, I tried this with 1x flight, 2x flight and no preferences, and with both single aircraft and section in flight size, and the expected number of flights/aircraft took off to intercept.
I am surpised the topic was marked >WAD< without explanation.
Unfortunately the suggested setting above works only for one case- a single target intercept. One would have to manually change the setting again if there were more aircraft attacking... I believe it makes the opponent (computer) pretty incompetent the way "air intercept mission" logic funcions in 1121.4.
This is the way the air intercept AI has always worked; it's just up to the player/designer to make sure that they set up the mission to behave the way they want.
Usually I will set them up so that if there's e.g. 12 aircraft on the ground ready, they go up in flights of 4. When one flight is spent (either RTB or dead) another one goes up, and so forth as long as there's aircraft available.
You can adjust the 'maximum number of flights allowed to fly', 'flight size' and other WRA and doctrine settings to get the behaviour you want. There's also the ability to create multiple missions with different engagement zones; e.g. a mission that sends out only a single flight of 2 at long range contacts, and a more robust response for anything that gets close.
With an ASW Intercept - I would expect a surface group w/ a couple of helos assigned to an ASW intercept to launch the assigned number of flights for each contact, and that seems to be the case in my experience (I will usually set this to 1 flight), but that's usually one contact at a time. I've never been able to figure out the logic of the air intercepts, though... I usually end up with all my assigned aircraft in the air, or not enough to deal w/ the threat.
Ex - Assume there's a flight of 6 inbound bombers, and you have a squadron of heavy F-15s w/ 6 AMRAAMS and 2 Sidewinders each assigned to an Intercept Mission that is set to take off on any contact within X nm. You configure your intercept mission to launch 2 aircraft / flight and assign 12 aircraft to the mission. You set the Max flights to 3. How many flights should you expect to launch? Is it one flight per contact, one flight per group of contacts, or even one interceptor per contact (with a minimum of a flight)? Does the WRA come into play in deciding? I would think 4 heavy F-15s should be more than enough to deal w/ 6 bombers w/o escorts, but will 3 flights be launched? And then, if there's another group of contacts from a different direction - should the same mission launch against them if the max flights is already airborne (I don't think so)?
I would expect 3 flights - all triggered by the first contact. From what I have been able to tell a single intercept mission can only handle one contact. It will not reset until flights assigned to that one initial contact land (or maybe RTB, not sure).
So it seemed to me that if you wanted to be able to intercept multiple AC coming in from different points (or the same) you would need an intercept mission for each one.
I could be wrong though. But I did spend some time trying to figure it out at one point (in CMANO). When you think about it, it is a complicated situation.
Basiically the number of contacts is irrelevant. The maximum (available) number of flights will launch on detection of a contact at the relevant distance snd certainty level specified in the mission. It's a binary--on or off--event, not related to how many contacts. The only criteria considered is 'if a contact is present'.
Whicker is right, in the example you describe a maximum of three flights will launch (the maximum number will always be launched if there are ready aircraft to meet the max; the only time you will have less than the maximum is if aircraft are readying).
The only amplification I have there is that aircraft on an intercept will move to engage the nearest contact, once that contact is no longer targetted (dead, no longer detected, turned out to be friendly/neutral) they will look for other nearby contacts before going home. If a contact meets the engagement critera of certainty level and is within a reasonable prosecution range they will be engaged. This continues until the aircraft go winchester, bingo, or run out of contacts to investigate.
There needs to be a certain level of simplicity in the tactical AI; when we start hard coding for every situation we dig ourselves into a hole that we will never code our way out of. The design principle behind the intercept AI--as well as the rest of the sim--is to give players and designers simple but powerful tools to achieve desired behaviour.
Some scenarios included with CMO that you could look at for examples of how to set up air defenses are: Pyropolitis 1-14, Operation Lightning Strike, Operation Brass Drum, Khark Island Raid, and North Pacific Shootout.
The one thing regarding investigating other contacts is that I usually have to specifically set the mission's weapon's doctrine to 'All BVR Weapons Expended'. Otherwise it seems that the interceptors will turn around and head home w/ 1/2 a loadout.
I'll also have to dig into those scenarios a bit more!
so for his example of enemy ac coming from widely different directions, assuming there are tons of available ac assigned to the mission you would expect both enemy ac to be intercepted? this is where I am saying it can only handle one contact/contacts in an area and nothing else will happen until those assigned ac rtb or land. Not complaining if this is the case, but as a user it is good to know.
This is the way the air intercept AI has always worked;
Hi,
I can say for the last year only: In my experience the air intercept mission always tried to match the number of air interceptors to the no. of attacking aircraft. Attached is the example of the same mission in one of the previous versions of CMO (applies to CMANO also).
You might consider making it as a selectable option in the attack missions in general then: "Match the size/stregth of attacking aircraft to the target). It could apply to all types of attack missions...
Attachments
Airinterc..1115.8.1.jpg (225.94 KiB) Viewed 866 times
I reran bostjan's scenario as originally posted with the 1115.8.1 build (current Steam version), and a single BluFor F-15 launched after the E-2 was identified as hostile instead of the 20 that launched in the 1121.4 build.
I also tested a slightly-modified version with 4 RedFor F-15s (and 1 RedFor E-2) launching instead of the single F-15 and single E-2 (file attached). With the 1115.8.1 build, ultimately 5 BluFor F-15s launched, with the last 4 launching several minutes after the first but before any of the RedFor F-15s were identified. With the 1121.4 build, all 20 launched one right after the other.
The balance of planes launched seems to be good under 1121.5. The original test scenario has 2 flights of one launched, and the modified scenario had 4 flights of one launched (went to 6 total as two BluFor F-15s went Winchester mid-scenario).
I've been on a bit of a hiatus from CMO while some of the initial launch issues were shaken out. I came back to it this morning, and I think this issue is still active w/ 1143.1.
In the attached scenario, I have an ASW Intercept mission set up with the 2 helos on the Keelung assigned to the mission. If you let it play, a contact will be detected to the NW, at which point both helos are launched, even though the mission is set up w/ one aircraft. I would expect only one helo be launched to investigate the contact(?).
Edit - Nevermind - I think I needed to set the max # of flights as well. Will keep an eye on it.
