[FIXED][1645] Question on ASCM Realism

[Knightpawn]

The Question was triggered by playing the attached scenario.

Autosave.zip

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Reference is made to SSC-3 Improved Styx [P-21] Missile [#-997] (and other similar). Focus on the one in the Bulgaria/Turkey border close to the coast.
Weapon description says:
Cruise Altitude 250m AGL
Flight Profile: Terrain following
The missile is dual purpose: Ships and Land Strutures

When I manually order it to fire against either target #5262 or #5245 (the two closest to the platform) I get the following message:
"Missile with cruise altitude 250m will impact terrain elevation (58m) on its plotted course"
To me this message is non-sensical. How can something that travels terrain following at 250m AGL can impact the terrain irrespective of elevation?

PS. I am playing with ADVANCED terrain effects. Even if there were trees 58m AGL heigh (wtf ?!), again the missile cruises at 250m AGL

Theories?

[thewood1]

After running a couple tests my assumption is that 58M isn't the height but the distance along the flight path where it encounters its first obstacle.

I have always wondered about the Flight Profile - Terrain Following property because it seems to be set for a lot of aircraft that don't seem to have true TF capabilities in real life. I think its a marker for something else.

edit...there seems to be a bunch of issues with how the ASCM setting works with Terrain Following capabilities. I'm going to run a few tests and see if I can get any player clarity on how its supposed to work.

[Dimitris]

Thanks for the heads up; there was indeed a logic flaw in the way the maximum cruise altitude was calculated (combination of ASL and AGL clearance settings). Fixed for the next update.

That said, in this case the shot you want to take (against track #5262) is not feasible from this unit:



Note the steep mountain range (area of Demirkoy) to the south-west of the SSM unit. There are plenty of peaks well over 600m there, so the missile even with its proper cruising altitude 250m is not going to clear them.

If you look at the areas to the NE, E and SE of the unit, the elevations are considerable lower (under 200m in most cases) so the missile brigade has a clear shot on its intended naval targets.

[Knightpawn]

@Dimitris

Thanks. What I still struggle to grasp (and I admit no military or weapons expertise whatsoever) comes from the concept of Cruise Altitude xxx m AGL. To my mind this means xxx m above sea level, and also xxx m above the peak of Kilimanjaro (this is a deliberate extreme example for illustrative purposes).

Your proposition implies that there are two parameters: A cruise altitude expressed as (m) AGL and also a cruise altitude ceiling that is expressed as (m) ASL. Hence a weapon travels at that AGL provided that it does not exceed the ASL ceiling. The question now is, where can one see the ceiling figure in the database to make inform tactical decisions?

[Dimitris]

For missiles that fall under the non-TF feature (and if it is enabled in the scenario realism settings), I would suggest relying on the ASL figure. The AGL figure does not apply to them (if they were able to maintain a constant AGL altitude, they would not have the problem of crashing into elevated terrain in the first place).