SAM site DP and component counts

[wyskass]

Most SAM sites consist of various combinations of short and long range launchers and radars. When attacking a SAM site it seems it's random which component will be hit, and I don't see a way to find out which were disabled. Recon observations only give damage status as a whole, and the number decrements for number of active components.
So there is a risk operating in it's area, not knowing which components are still capable.

While I initially use ARM or standoff cruise missiles to hit them, it's often possible to clean up with a low level gun strafe. Now, for example an AGM-158 may deal 217 DP, while a 100 round burst of 20mm with deal 100 DP. Both equally destroy a component. So there are no DP values for those components nor a total per site, so how to determine what minimal strike is needed.
I'm trying now to waste valuable weapons on SAM sites, as they usually require many individual hits, but of unknown DP. It's minimal because any weapon seems to be able to destroy a component.

Is there any way to find out which components have been destroyed ? It seems to be that any basic ground recon would be able to pick out which are destroyed.
Also, how does it work without DP values and how are components treated by the system since they are not independent yet behave like it.

[stww2]

It's a bit gamey, but you can check the losses and expenditures tab and see how the enemy losses have changed since you last looked at it (that will tell you the exact SAM components that were destroyed). If you want to limit yourself to only doing this after some sort of visual pass (using a sacrif-,err, scout) over the site, that's of course possible.

In terms of determining how many weapons are needed (in situations where you don't have enough weapons to simply target 1 per aim-point, which is probably the most conservative approach-in terms caution, anyway), you could calculate what percentage of the site's aimpoints you wanted to take out in order to provide a reasonable probability that the SAM is no longer operational. There's not really a right answer to this, but it might be reasonable to decide that if, say, 2/3 of the SAM's aimpoints have been destroyed, then there's a pretty good chance that the fire control radar was one of them. And even if the FCR remained operational, the SAM's performance would likely be seriously degraded. You could even calculate what the exact probability of that happening was, if you really wanted to (I don't).

Another option it to run a couple of tests in the editor to see how many weapons it takes on average to disable or destroy a site.

[wyskass]

Ah yes!
Those are all good methods and ideas for this situation.

[KnightHawk75]

duplicate. could not delete for some reason.

[KnightHawk75]

Is there any way to find out which components have been destroyed ? It seems to be that any basic ground recon would be able to pick out which are destroyed.
Also, how does it work without DP values and how are components treated by the system since they are not independent yet behave like it.

Assuming you don't want to pop over to the other side to peek or are designing a scene where you want others or yourself to be able to, you could give yourself a special action to cheat the information based on whatever contacts you have selected, ie paste the following into a special action.

Code: Select all

local function DumpSelectedContactsComponentStatus(logOrmsg)
  if logOrmsg == nil or type(logOrmsg) ~= "number" then logOrmsg = 1; end
  local su = ScenEdit_SelectedUnits()
  print(su);
  if su == nil or su.contacts == nil or #su.contacts < 1 then 
     ScenEdit_MsgBox("You must first select a contact.",0); return false;
  else 
    local retval,marker = '',false;
    for i = 1,#su.contacts do
      marker = true;
      local ct = VP_GetContact({guid=su.contacts[i].guid});
      if (ct ~=nil) and ct.actualunitid ~=nil then
        local u = SE_GetUnit({guid=ct.actualunitid});
        if ((u ~=nil) and u.components ~= nil) and #u.components > 0 then
          retval = retval ..'<table><caption>Contacts Unit: '.. tostring(u.name) ..'</caption> <tr><th style="text-align: left">Component Name</th><th style="text-align: left">Status</th></tr>';
          for _,v in pairs(u.components) do
            retval = string.format("%s<tr><td>%s</td><td>%s</td></tr>",retval,v.comp_name, v.comp_status);
          end
          retval = retval .. '</table>';
        else
          ScenEdit_MsgBox("error obtaining unit object behind that contact.",0);
        end
      else
        ScenEdit_MsgBox("error obtaining contact object for that guid.",0);
      end
    end
    if logOrmsg == 0 then --log only
      print(retval);
    elseif logOrmsg == 1 then --msg only
      ScenEdit_SpecialMessage("playerside",retval);
    else --both. 
      print(retval);
      ScenEdit_SpecialMessage("playerside",retval);
    end
    if marker then return true; end
  end
  return false;
end

DumpSelectedContactsComponentStatus(1)

Obviously you can pretty up the table if you so desire, or only work on ones where BDA data exists in the contact object to be less cheaty then the above.

The latter question can depend on the unit, and how the unit is flagged, and if 'mounts' and or components are considered DP points, frankly I'm not sure how best to describe it all concisely so it might be better I don't attempt it.

[tylerblakebrandon]

If your message log has weapon options enabled, and pop ups as an option too, you can see some info about what was hit or missed. For example you might see "AGM-88B HARM has impacted Vehicle (Spoon Rest D)" or "57mm Rocket has missed Mobile Personel (SA-7 Grail) by 220 feet."