Artillery Targeting or Re-Targeting Delay?

[Tzar007]

At this moment, there is no delay in ordering a bombardment or re-targeting an ongoing bombardment. Is it something that could change in BFTB?

I am just wondering if in real life re-targeting an in-progress bombardment a couple of kilometers further could be done almost instantly?

[Arjuna]

Actually there is. The delay used represents the time taken to register the target - ie call in spotting rounds, adjust, and finally fire for effect. If you call fire in that is a long way from your current registration loc then you suffer a longer delay. That's why you can shift fire a few hundred metres and only suffer a minute or two's delay.

[Tzar007]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

Actually there is. The delay used represents the time taken to register the target - ie call in spotting rounds, adjust, and finally fire for effect. If you call fire in that is a long way from your current registration loc then you suffer a longer delay. That's why you can shift fire a few hundred metres and only suffer a minute or two's delay.

OK, I was really under the impression that there was no real delay. At least I did not notice any significant delay (something over 3 to 5 minutes) when re-targeting to spots even a couple of kilometers away. Instinctively I was thinking that re-targeting could take much longer in real life in WWII, like 10 or 15 minutes, but I am not an expert in artillery.

[Arjuna]

Our resident gunner Steve "Golf33" Long should be able to comment on that. Steve...?

[Golf33]

A properly-trained Commonwealth or American artillery unit could put fire on a new target in two minutes, even back in WWII. In fact when you look at the less technologically-advanced armies, i.e. those not yet using data-burst fire control between the observers and the guns, procedures for directing fire are substantially the same as those used in 1944/45. We have fire control computers, which means we can be a bit more refined without taking longer to shoot, but the basics of identifying the target, calling in fire, and adjusting the fire if required, as well as surveying in the guns, hadn't changed significantly until the widespread introduction of GPS - and not as much as you might think, even then.

Regards
33

[Arjuna]

Thanks Steve. So Tom it looks like we're right on the money as is. [:)]

[Tzar007]

ORIGINAL: Golf33

A properly-trained Commonwealth or American artillery unit could put fire on a new target in two minutes, even back in WWII. In fact when you look at the less technologically-advanced armies, i.e. those not yet using data-burst fire control between the observers and the guns, procedures for directing fire are substantially the same as those used in 1944/45. We have fire control computers, which means we can be a bit more refined without taking longer to shoot, but the basics of identifying the target, calling in fire, and adjusting the fire if required, as well as surveying in the guns, hadn't changed significantly until the widespread introduction of GPS - and not as much as you might think, even then.

Regards
33

Thanks for having clarified the point. 2 minutes is much faster than I would have thought, and it means indeed that HTTR is modeling targeting and re-targeting very correctly (good job indeed by the development team [:)] )

In HTTR, most gun units are regimental-attached or division-attached, except for mortars and smaller guns who are battalion-attached. Is it possible that when you were going up higher in the ladder and looking at corps or army-attached artillery the delays were much longer? I have read horror stories for example on how Soviet artillery were awfully long in responding to requests.

[Arjuna]

Soviet artillery, while massive, was not how shall we say ...responsive. Especially early in the war few artillery units used radios. Even by war's end the bulk were still using telephones and many were still employed as direct fire units a la Napoleon times. So one should not use them as the yardstick for the Western Front armies.

As for increasing on-call delay the further up the chain of command you go, I'll add that to the wish list. But it's probably too late to make into the patch, I'm afraid - next game! [:)]