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some help for an A-10 rookie?


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I'm getting better at targetting and destroying enemy targets (though at 90% missile slidker setting, the Maverick seems to miss a lot). My main problem is that I am constantly gettin shot down by the Shilkas and/or the Strelas... :(

 

What's a good defensive strategy to avoid the low altitude shilkas and the higher altitude strelas? And what's the best strategy to avoid getting hit after a missile launch? As of right now, my strategy is to break turn, drop to lower alyitude, and repeatedly launch chaff and flares... it doesn't always work...

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When your Maverick misses are you sure you have a lock and launch authorizaition (flashing plus sign)?

 

Shilkas shouldn't be a problem unless you try to bomb it, if you use a maverick you should be able to stay out of it's range.

But if you are trying to bomb it, don't run straight for it but rather fly in an arch towards it, this makes you much more difficult to hit, only go straight the last few seconds to line up the sights.

i7-2600k@4GHz, 8GB, R9 280X 3GB, SSD, HOTAS WH, Pro Flight Combat Pedals, TIR5

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Another good tactic is to stay above 10000ft, this keeps you out of range of the shilka and the strella too I think, use mavs and ccrp to take out the air defences, then you can come in lower for strafing runs etc..

 

As for missile evasion, it depends on what range you have been fired on from. Generally though, the best tactic is to turn and run as fast as you can, pumping chaff and flare

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but it still seems to miss more than it should (am launching at maximum range and 90% missile effectiveness).

:confused:

 

Wow..that´s queer. I play with 50% efectiveness and hit 99% of my shots. So, definetly, there´s something wrong in your procedures...Maybe the fact of firing at max range??? I usually fire between 4 and 2 miles, depending on what I´m targeting. Also, depending on the type of mav I´m using: usually, for TV AGM, closer, and IR, thanks to better target ID and scene mag, longer shots.

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With regards to the Maverick... yeah, I only launch when the cross is flashing.. but it still seems to miss more than it should (am launching at maximum range and 90% missile effectiveness).

:confused:

Strange... Some SAM systems have the capability to shoot the missiles down though.

i7-2600k@4GHz, 8GB, R9 280X 3GB, SSD, HOTAS WH, Pro Flight Combat Pedals, TIR5

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What's a good defensive strategy to avoid the low altitude shilkas and the higher altitude strelas? And what's the best strategy to avoid getting hit after a missile launch? As of right now, my strategy is to break turn, drop to lower alyitude, and repeatedly launch chaff and flares... it doesn't always work...

Firstly avoid getting launched at - Kill them before they kill you, your maverics have much greater range. You need to be constantly scanning the area you can see for AA. Spot a strela, lock it up, throttle back to lower IR sig, shoot and leave low.

If a strela launches a missile at you, pull the throttle back to idle and pump out flares, forget chaff. The thing to consider is if to turn away or not, if you are too close it will still hit you and you will give it a hotter target as you will be low aspect.

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A-10 SEAD

 

Ok this is an interesting topic so heres a few pointers on how to fight and win. Firstly approach at 10 000ft(unless theres enemy cap) as stated above. From this height you can attack most SAMs with AGM65Ds,(upto 7nm away)

I don't use any indication for MAV launch, just make sure the heat signature is in centre of the cross, it centres automatically(which indicates a lock).

Tungaska, strela1, igla, strela10 and shilka can all be hit by ccip at this altitude with cluster bombs Mk20 rockeyes and CBU97s. Unless theres a larger search radar or expert AI level then it has to be AGMs for strela 10. The trick is a good dive angle and early release followed by missile evasion manouvre. The manouvre is basically to roll inverted and pull back whilst popping 3-6 flares then 20 deg nose down break left or right away from the threat.(it will dodge most ground launched heatseekers)

BTW on expert ai tungaskas will shoot down incoming missiles using both cannon and missile. It can be defeated if you attack from 2 sides using a 2nd aircraft. The 30mm cannon also can be used to kill shilkas(it out ranges them, must fire at about 2nm to avoid getting hit), it was one of the design goals of the cannon. If you are in an area where a cap is operating then you have to fly low and use popup attack profile to take the shot and duck back down to low level. With v1.11 its even more fun with mountains.

[sIGPIC]2011subsRADM.jpg

[/sIGPIC]

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Ok this is an interesting topic so heres a few pointers on how to fight and win. Firstly approach at 10 000ft(unless theres enemy cap) as stated above. From this height you can attack most SAMs with AGM65Ds,(upto 7nm away)

I don't use any indication for MAV launch, just make sure the heat signature is in centre of the cross, it centres automatically(which indicates a lock).

Tungaska, strela1, igla, strela10 and shilka can all be hit by ccip at this altitude with cluster bombs Mk20 rockeyes and CBU97s. Unless theres a larger search radar or expert AI level then it has to be AGMs for strela 10. The trick is a good dive angle and early release followed by missile evasion manouvre. The manouvre is basically to roll inverted and pull back whilst popping 3-6 flares then 20 deg nose down break left or right away from the threat.(it will dodge most ground launched heatseekers)

BTW on expert ai tungaskas will shoot down incoming missiles using both cannon and missile. It can be defeated if you attack from 2 sides using a 2nd aircraft. The 30mm cannon also can be used to kill shilkas(it out ranges them, must fire at about 2nm to avoid getting hit), it was one of the design goals of the cannon. If you are in an area where a cap is operating then you have to fly low and use popup attack profile to take the shot and duck back down to low level. With v1.11 its even more fun with mountains.

 

Cool discripton ;)

Be Good..Be Strong..:drink: ;)

 

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nice read there subs. :)

 

will try it out tonight.

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Thanks for the replies guys; I've got lots of stuff to try now :)

 

 

That would be because last I checked, the missile slider is messed up - it only works properly on 50% or 100% setting.

 

hmm, that's kinda weird. Okay I'm gonna stick with 50% from now on and see how that goes. One more thing though, at 90% I was launching at low altitude, max range... maybe that has something to do with the misses as well? Also my wingman's mavericks were missing as well, and I'm pretty sure they weren't getting shot down by the Strela.

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Good advice being given but I'd like to add: Keep in mind that an A-10 is not a SEAD platform. Your job is usually not to annihilate everything in sight but rather to weaken the enemy force to the point where it is no longer combat effective.

 

In attacking a single column, it works well to single out the AA cover first. Usually you're only dealing with one or two AA assets. But when attacking larger enemy forces that doesn't work too well because there are a greater number of AA assets and they are buried in a maneuvering force.

 

I was playing with Tunguskas upon 1.11's release and, then, added this and that to create an interesting (at least to me) combat vignette. Here's a 1.11 track (no voiceover) of that attack: http://flankertraining.com/examples/A-10_v_Armor-1.11.zip Hopefully it'll play back correctly. It should end with some guns kills and me in the air heading for home.

 

Please keep in mind that I've had very little stick time in these last several months. My "rustiness" most definitely shows. So be gentle. :)

 

Rich

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU1...CR6IZ7crfdZxDg

 

_____

Win 10 Pro x64, ASUS Z97 Pro MoBo, Intel i7-4790K, EVGA GTX 970 4GB, HyperX Savage 32GB, Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SSD, 2x Seagate Hybrid Drive 2TB Raid 0.

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Get down in the weeds and use your superior turning ability to turn and run when someone fires a SAM at you while dumping flares ... wait for them to fire all their missiles and dash in and nail them with the cannon! Works with Igla man and most of the smaller SAMs ... For bigger SAMs stay VERY low, so you are kicking up dust ... and gun them. Works for me ... Tunguskas are abit trickier though! For ZSU-23s, as someone else mentioned fire from about 1.5miles ... I think they fire at about 1.0 ... so get hits quickly!

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You have less time to react at low level;)

 

True ... but it takes for ever to climb to 10k ... and you are VERY vulnerable to SA-6 class weapons up there .... down low you can hide in the hills and use your GAU! And ducking and diving low-down is more fun IMHO!

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I fly the A-10 mostly 1980s style. Lightly loaded ( 2 or 4 Mavs + gun ), treetop level.

 

Altough the surviveability down low is quite a bit handicaped in Lock On. Because there is no alertness level for AA units, IR SAMs take a heavy toll. Such units that depend on visual target search should suffer quite a lot from the surprise effect that a low ingressing plane has on its side. The instant firing AI also makes the pop-up tactic useless, one of the standart tactics of the A-10. But I hope Tank Killers will improve that aspect.

Also the fact that trees and forests don't block visual ( and radar ? ) acquisition and block fire makes the life quite a bit harder for the A-10, that depends highly on natural cover. But I guess LOMAC 1.2 and finaly Tank Killers will improve that aspect aswell.

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The hog is such a great a/c to fly in LO ... great turing ability at 300kts-ish ... I wonder if it is as good in RL? Will this change if they AFM it? The Su-25T is such a blimp! (Sorry to all lovers of the Frog .. peace and love!)

 

Those Igla are certainly difficult to spot ...

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I fly the A-10 mostly 1980s style. Lightly loaded ( 2 or 4 Mavs + gun ), treetop level.

 

Altough the surviveability down low is quite a bit handicaped in Lock On. Because there is no alertness level for AA units, IR SAMs take a heavy toll. Such units that depend on visual target search should suffer quite a lot from the surprise effect that a low ingressing plane has on its side. The instant firing AI also makes the pop-up tactic useless, one of the standart tactics of the A-10. But I hope Tank Killers will improve that aspect.

Also the fact that trees and forests don't block visual ( and radar ? ) acquisition and block fire makes the life quite a bit harder for the A-10, that depends highly on natural cover. But I guess LOMAC 1.2 and finaly Tank Killers will improve that aspect aswell.

 

I agree about the pop-up technique being handicapped because of the lackof AI 'visual search patterns' (or search patterns of any sort for that matter)

 

However I completely disagree that low-level aproach increases survivability against SHORAD. Everyone with their rifle and Igla will want to put a hole into you, and - guess what - once you pass overhead, and it's not exactly all that likely that YOU will see them in time to do anything, you'll likely have shoulder-fired SAMs coming up at you in the most lethal manner possible: Directly onto your tail, where you can't see the launch.

That is EXACTLY why you DO NOT want to fly low, and you fly low ONLY when you must. That's my philosophy anyone.

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I used to play flight sims like you, but then I took a slammer to the knee - Yoda

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However I completely disagree that low-level aproach increases survivability against SHORAD. Everyone with their rifle and Igla will want to put a hole into you, and - guess what - once you pass overhead, and it's not exactly all that likely that YOU will see them in time to do anything, you'll likely have shoulder-fired SAMs coming up at you in the most lethal manner possible: Directly onto your tail, where you can't see the launch.

That is EXACTLY why you DO NOT want to fly low, and you fly low ONLY when you must. That's my philosophy anyone.

 

 

I am not sure if you are talking about Lock On or RL right now. I agree that your statement is correct in the LOMAC context, but wrong in real life.

If you approach low and unnoticed ( and the A-10 is pretty good at that, depending on terrain ), I guess chances are pretty high that you can put Mavs or your gun on target and escape without getting shot at. Remember that ground troops don't expect an air attack all the time and need some time to "wake up". How long does it take to get an Igla off your back and make it ready to fire ? I guess Strelas would have a shorter reaction time, still they need to spot you first and their commanders won't scan the sky with 100% concentration 24h a day. Of course once your initial attack has happened everyone on the ground will be 100% ready and a second attack would be suicidal. That is why IRL the first rule of ground attack is, never make a second run.

Of course the situation changes if the ground troops are pre warned. Perhaps your approach has been spotted by EWR or other ground troops. Still it depends if your target area has acces to IADS datas.

 

Btw, my assumtions are made with a "stand off" attack with Mav or the gun in mind, without overflying the target directly. The Hogs in the 1980s would have never used bombs in a conflict with the soviets, because it would have been too dangerous ( but faster Jaguars or Harriers would have on CAS ).

 

P.S.: Hogs would have operated only in pairs, so we can assume that SAM launches from 6 o'clock would have had a chance of beeing spotted by the covering partner.

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