Help me out on this one, I am confused. This is the CCIP symbology for a Snakeye with a hefty crosswind. Why is the impact point right off the flight path marker?
Before you say, the crosswind is pushing the Snakeye to the side, consider the following. The flight path marker is already offset due to cross wind. Shouldn’t the bomb drop vertically in relationship to the flight path marker?
A thought experiment: If wind is a uniformly moving air mass, aerodynamically you could also consider the aircraft flying through a static air mass and the ground instead moving below it. In such case, the bomb would drop vertically from the plane and fly along the same horizontal vector.
Edit: Disregard, I think I have cleared my brain fart. This would only be true if the bomb retains the same speed as the aircraft (i.e. for slicks). As the bomb slows down, it actually moves to the side of the ground track of the aircraft.
More findings.The jet is not correctly calculating the ballistics of Rockeyes. It seems it is calculating them as unitary bombs, not taking into account the different trajectory of the submunition. When dropped steep and the submunition has a similar trajectory as a bomb, the targeting cues are accurate.
And even more questions related to bombing. I noticed that the interval setting on the Armament Control Panel is only accurate at 1G. Releases under G loads will stretch the lenght of the bomb stick. Is this accurate and couldn’t the computer compensate the interval setting when doing a loft or dive-toss?
Does each aircraft in DCS use the same set of ballistics? If so if, say, the Rockeye routinely falls short because the bomblets deceleration isn’t accounted for, then is this a universal issue in DCS or would it be specific to an aircraft?
Because my weapons manual that has all the ballistics for even the number of weapons we could drop manually, was as thick as a phone book.
So, the ballistics of the weapons themselves must have been calculated by ED at some point.
My understanding is that ED is responsible for weapon development/coding/maintenance, so I believe that’s correct, that a Rockeye dropped by an AV-8B would have the same ballistics as one dropped by an F/A-18C, etc.
I know at one time (perhaps still?) the Hornet was affected by a problem with Rockeyes landing short or long in CCRP (I think).
What I mean, is that it might not be an issue with the code in the weapon, but rather the code in the individual module’s MC/HUD that calculates those ballistics and provides an aimpoint.
No, the full attack was conducted under AUTO. I actually just quickly switched to CCIP using the “active pause” feature of DCS to compare the sight picture, then went back to AUTO.
Rockeyes (along with several CBUs) have been broken for years. The spread and affectiveness against anything is terrible. Even trucks seem to be impervious to this anti-armor weapon.
ED keeps promising fixes, but nothing has resulted.
Dropping high-drag bombs in CCIP only makes sense: they have drag fins specifically to enable low-altitude bombing where the target is right in your HUD. The Mirage 2000 does the same.
The Viggen is specifically made for planned strikes, so you know the profike you will be flying in advance. So why take drag fins if you can drop from altitude using CCRP?
The AV-8B on the other hand is a CAS platform made to be flexible and to operate without a minutiously planned attack profile.
@Deacon211, I uninstalled DCS in protest two months ago. Nothing—not the paid for but unseen Apache, not Top Gun—has made me want to reinstall quite the way I do now. Even without DCS, your descriptions about how this jet is supposed to work have been pure gold.
Your humility makes reading your impressions all the more refreshing. Most everyone who follows this thread probably understands how tricky the Harrier is (soon, “was”). You may not want to highlight how dangerous your service was, regardless of whether or not you saw combat. I feel compelled to share what I’ve gleaned from many years of cockpit conversations. The Harrier is a ■■■■■! In DCS, it’s a blast. In DCS the engine doesn’t ingest it’s own gases in a self-sustaining cycle of decreasing power. We never sweat fuel while we await our turn on the boat. We always launch from the stern with a motor producing the advertised thrust. I’ve had several friends who flew them. In hindsight they are grateful for the experience. But even more grateful to have survived it. The second* most terrifying fighter pilot story I was ever told was from a Harrier guy telling me about his first night landing on the boat. At 50 feet he began to badly PIO. The LSO (or, lacking LSOs, someone) screamed to get away from the boat. For the next try he had to rearrange every neuron in his head to quell the fear and self-doubt. I’ve felt professional pressure. We all have. But I’ve never known anything nearly this intense. And this was a good jet on a good night on a relaxed sea with nobody shooting.
The handful of Harrier experiences that I’ve extracted from patient Marines and one RN are just part of the picture. I’ve heard from many more Marines who did everything within their power to avoid a Harrier slot. Fear of the Harrier must have been so pervasive and so rational that admitting the fear was just demonstrating sanity.
In the right hands it must have been an amazing jet. But it took more courage to fly it than anything else in the US arsenal. You can’t say that for yourself so I hope you are not offended that I am saying it for you.
*F4 guy shot down into a rubber tree plantation and spent 90 days as a POW in Cambodia with wounds festering.
I have never flown the real Viggen but served as a crew chief on the AJ 37 (pre AJS modification, which is portrayed in DCS). So I’m not speaking from personal knowledge, but from what I can read in the POH.
Looks like the 120kg m/71 bomb can be released in Dive, level, radar ranging (CCRP) modes, regardless of having a retardation chute or not. The CCIP release mode requires a chute though.
Which was my main point, considering most of us can’t read Swedish!
That poor island. In a thousand years from now, when archeologists notice the ancient craters and fragmented remains of hundreds of weapons all dropped onto that one island, they’ll put together a fantastic theory about the brave defenders, of whom nothing now remains.
Me too, although I doubt the answer is available in the AFM/POH/Swedish Air Force Manual of Flying the Most Awesome Strike Aircraft Ever to Intercept an SR-71.
Were retarded/HD bombs the primary/preferred bomb, and maybe it made sense to incorporate CCIP with those while CCRP was the primary (more accurate) method of delivery?
