Selecting the right Laser Code (PRF)

Hi! Here's what I'm trying to accomplish: Say you have a 4 ship flight and you are all going to self-designate for GBU-12 employment, and everyone is going to have a different laser code. Instead of everyone picking one at random, I'd like to assign them in some logical way that makes it easy for everyone to remember each other's code in case we need to buddy lase.

One of the easiest ways to do this would be to pick an arbitrary first 3 digits and make the last digit correspond to flight position, e.g.

Flight Lead: 1681

Wingman: 1682

etc.

This would probably work in DCS where the world is perfect, but I wanted to see if codes that are so close would increase the chances of a sensor in real life getting confused. So I did some research and all I could find were these two documents:

[ame]https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/jp3_09_1.pdf[/ame]

[ame]http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/usmc/mcwp/3-16/appk.pdf[/ame]

So as I understand it, the first digit must be 1, the second digit can be 1-7, and the last two digits can be 1-8. (Side note: DCS A-10C gives a CICU error if you try any code with set the second digit set to 7). Furthermore, the lower the code, the higher the PRF. That surprised me! Furthermore, a lower code (higher PRF) improves the ability for the seeker to lock, at the cost of higher battery drain for the laser designator (not a problem for an aircraft but a consideration for ground forces.)

Okay, so back to the core of my question: is it a bad idea to use codes that are only 1 digit apart? Secondly, is it a bad thing to have a code with too many repeating digits, such as "1111"?

What's PRF? Probable Rate of Failure?

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What's PRF? Probable Rate of Failure?

 

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Pulse Repetition Frequency.

"General. PRF codes can affect target engagement success. The lower the code number, the faster the laser pulse rate. The lower code number and faster pulse rate will give the seeker the most opportunity to acquire the target in the time available, and is appropriate for the most important targets and the most difficult operating conditions. However, lower code numbers cause faster battery drain."

From page 49 of this PDF, which seems to be an updated version of one of the PDFs I linked above.

[ame=http://www.bits.de/NRANEU/others/jp-doctrine/jp3_09_1%2899%29.pdf]http://www.bits.de/NRANEU/others/jp-doctrine/jp3_09_1%2899%29.pdf[/ame]

There are of cause a lot of ways to do it. They way we do it the laser code, group ID and Own ID are based upon flight number.

e.g. FURY 5-1will have GID 35, Own ID 51 and laser code 1551 whereas his wingman FURY 5-2 will have Group ID 35, Own ID 52 and laser code 1552.

But there are several ways to do it.

 

cheers

Hans

Haha, I was considering posting this exact example in another thread, along with some info on setting up laser-codes on the TGP and DSMS, but I only did a more generalised example so I wouldn't potentially violate any internal info. :)

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