Question about Strike Mission AI

[HalfLifeExpert]

I posted the below text over a year ago, but I forgot about it, and I never got any response to this, so I'm going to ask again here as well as in the FB Group:

I've looked in the manual and I didn't see a clear answer on this (unless I missed something).
This would mainly apply to ASW and ASuW Strikes, but land strikes as well against mobile targets:

If you launch a strike mission against a given moving target (such as an enemy submarine or surface group), and then subsequently lose solid contact on that target for any reason, how does the AI handle that information and act?

Since I didn't previously use ASW and ASuW strike missions, I wanted to ask after re-reading a book about the Battle of the Coral Sea. In that battle, on May 7, the IJN carriers mistakenly launched a large airstrike against a single oiler and destroyer, when the scouts mistakenly reported it as US carriers (for some reason).
The Japanese aircraft didn't immediately strike the oiler, rather spending a good half hour or more searching the immediate area before deciding to finish off this lesser target with some of the aircraft.

IF I send an airstrike against a surface group or sub, and the contact is subsequently lost (but still has an area of uncertainty), will the aircraft go to their original IP points and search/strike until bingo?

Or will they abort if solid contact is lost?

[JFS737]

Good question. No idea, but monitoring to hear if any info comes out.

[Tcao]

Try this testing scenario.

They will just follow flight path, abort the strike mission even the contact is re-acquired later .




UPDATE: change one group's ready to time to 0 , re-run the testing
the strike A/C group will update their strike plan if they can get an updated contact position during their ingress.

[Tcao]

Anyway, setup a ASuW Patrol zone sounds like a more flexible option here.

[thewood1]

A semi-answer might be in this thread...

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=408554

The target was judged in range on launch. But appears to have moved beyond range and even went into the uncertainty category. The flight went RTB as soon as the AI "realized" it was out of range. I solved that issue through AAR refueling and in another test, through flight paths and manipulating the flight path timings.