Aircraft attack profiles...

[Adam106]

I've been following the development of this game for some time now. It looks very promising indeed.

I'm really looking forward to the air war side of things. One feature I like is the 'mission profile' info we've seen included with loadouts in some of the screenshots. Can the player actually direct what type of attack profile to carry out? Eg - A dive attack, laydown, loft/toss, medium level delivery etc. In theory we should have both visual and blind / all weather variations of these.

In one of the build updates you mentioned that aircraft can toss/loft bombs...but is this under the direct control of the player? What would be great is a 'Delivery' option when assigning weapons. But could it also be influenced through aircraft altitude and weapon type? Problem is, a general purpose dumb bomb can be delivered in many different ways - all with advantages and disadvantages both to friendly and enemy. We need to choose somehow...

Another consideration is the simulation of cold war nuclear strikes. For most of the early cold war period, tactical strike aircraft had the LABS (Low Altitude Bombing System) maneuver as their primary attack mode. This involved a toss/loft attack or the rather more suicidal 'over the shoulder' attack. I would love to play out a scenario with F-105's or Buccaneers and have this kind of detail.

Looking forward to 24th September...

[Adam106]

No comment on this from Devs or Beta testers...? Maybe for post Version 1 I guess?

[mikmykWS]

Hi Adam

Sorry you didn't get a response. Just pinged the airnuts on our team to answer your questions. You'll be hearing from them soon.

Thanks!

Mike

[ComDev]

The type of attack profile and weapon delivery method is currently not selectable, aircraft use optimum cruise altitude and laydown at the moment. The actual attack altitude varies depending on weapon type, iron bombs are delivered at low altitude while LGBs are delivered at medium altitude. You are of course free to manually control your aircraft, set altitude and speed, release weapons, etc, according to your preferences.

So attack profiles are included in the database and we've done all the planning/design for this, but the sim engine is not currently not using them. Proper profiles, strike mission navigation via waypoints, etc, is very high on my personal wish list and I will begin implementing the final pieces of the puzzle once other high-priority items have been solved.

[Adam106]

OK, that sounds reasonable but I do hope this area gets attention in future updates.
I've read that unguided weapons have a CEP modeled correct? This sounds great, but are factors like release altitude accounted for in the accuracy. A dump bomb dropped level from 20000ft is going to be a lot less accurate than the same bomb dropped level from 150ft.

If this is modeled, the selection of delivery mode is vital - a Dive attack would increase accuracy and still keep the aircraft away from AAA and small arms fire. This is going to be pretty vital in any kind of pre LGB/PGM cold war scenario. A game with so much rich and deep sensor modelling deserves is crying out for this kind of detail.

[Dimitris]

Yes, CEP varies _a lot_ with altitude.

You can check this in Command in any Vietnam scenario. Put a B-52 on a high-altitude Arc Light run (note down the bomb type on the loadout) and observe the bomb dispersion (noth visually on the map and from the message log). Then swap the B-52 with an F-4, same bomb type, and strike from as low as possible. Compare the miss distances and you'll notice the pattern.

[Alejo1968]

Hi, interesting topic!
One more question slightly related to it... Is the radar coverage at different altitudes modeled, so as to plan an step descent with an aircraft while it gets closer to the target? Like in the South Atlantic War, when argentine aircrafts flew this pattern, avoided radar detection, saved fuel, and finally got to the target flying at very low altitude.

[Dimitris]

Yes, both radar horizon and LOS blockage due to terrain etc. are modelled.

[Alejo1968]

One last...
Are aircraft allowed during their approach to the target to fly in very close formation, so as to "confuse"/avoid radar lock? Specially against 1980´s or older SAMs.
This kind of tactic doomed DD Coventry in the Falklands War back in 1982...

sorry...
And radar ground clutter due to proximity to land? This would be useful when planning an attack agains naval targets with a/c coming very low and from the land (higher terrain on the back of the aircrafts).

[Dimitris]

ORIGINAL: Abbeville_01
One last...
Are aircraft allowed during their approach to the target to fly in very close formation, so as to "confuse"/avoid radar lock? Specially against 1980´s or older SAMs.
This kind of tactic doomed DD Coventry in the Falklands War back in 1982...

They can, but they don't get the confusion benefit. Not against the AI anyway [;)]

And radar ground clutter due to proximity to land? This would be useful when planning an attack agains naval targets with a/c coming very low and from the land (higher terrain on the back of the aircrafts).

We actually model this, but currently only for surface targets, not aircraft. Ships however can very effectively use nearby land clutter to reduce their effective detection range. Even a full-size carrier can be much harder to detect if you park it in the fjords (the USN actually tested this in the 80s).

[George Patton]

Is Nulka modelled in the game?

[Dimitris]

The anti-missile decoy? Yes.