low altitude recon mission?

[quertice]

Somewhere here I have read about high effectiveness of low altitude recon missions, how much low? 20000 feets? but overall, is it worthwhile to order recon missions in this way?

I'm used to fly recon missions always at ceiling altitude to minimize risk for planes

[warshipbuilder]

500 feet or less and you are under the radar, although you can go up to 2000 feet and not get picked up. Just make sure you plan your route very carefully to avoid balloons and small caliber AA.

[kaybayray]

Greetings qwerty <S> Sir !

The relevant concept here is the altitude of the recon mission is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the mission. IE: The higher the altitude the more inaccurate the Recon, the lower the altitude the more accurate the Recon.

I have had good results with 400 feet as my standard for Recon. I do lose some birds from time to time, but rarely. But then I pay attention to my flight paths during plotting.

Regards,
KayBay[8D]

[TaggedYa]

The relevant concept here is the altitude of the recon mission is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the mission. IE: The higher the altitude the more inaccurate the Recon, the lower the altitude the more accurate the Recon.

This is not really correct. There are 2 types of recon. High which is > 9000 ft. and Low which is <= 9000 ft.

For low recon, if it is less than 3 days old then accurate numbers for planes and small calibre AAA are given even if they have changed after the recon. For High recon the numbers are only for large calibre AAA and are not very accurate. Also the 2 days are not meaningful as you don't get the information that decays on the 3rd day anyway. High altitude recon is basicly for accuracy in bombing and finding the target and for accuracy in bomb damage assessment and production rates. The actual altitude is irrelevant if over 9k feet.

So for airfields, if you want to know how many planes and small AAA he has then 9k or less. (I stay above the 37MM by using 8600 or so as you can be off altitude) For industry fly at high altitude (in all cases over max AAA) and try to look at everything you think is important on a fairly regular basis. If you are looking to do a low altitude attack or a fighter bomber attack then 9k or lower will give a solid report for 2 days.

Troops also need low recon if you want accurate info on composition and AAA.