Harrier AFAC - feeding to JDAM on new coords

I had the desire to try AFAC in the Harrier with a greater standoff range to avoid intense Air Defense areas. I wanted to feed TPOD data to a JDAM equipped Hornet driver who could lob JDAM's without the need for laser acquisition, just a Bomb on Coordinate Type 3, 9 line.

Note that concept expects a realistic F10 map, no units shown on it. If you are clicking on magic units and gaining precise data, then that is up to you, but you can stop reading if this is not your thing. No offense intended.

The reasoning for 'no laser' is as a potentially superior alternative in distance, not precision.

The challenge is, the Harrier TPOD gives us a six figure coordinate in the top right of the display. We have to give a different type of coordinate to the Hornet to get the accuracy needed to hit a car sized object.

Note that this is not more accurate than laser accuracy, but it definitely will allow a greater ‘paired’ standoff distance, due to the maximum limitation of laser, and requirements to be designating and vulnerable.

Here are the Harrier coords they get as shown on the TPOD page:

N 4215972

E 04239506

H 459

What you have here is that the last three numbers are the decimal part and we need to work on those before handing to the Hornet.

Courtesy of 132nd Virtual Wing http://132virtualwing.org/ , who helped me out, 132nd Junior said the following;

Just multiply 3 last digits of the TPOD DD by 0.06

4215972 => 972x0.06=58.32

So DMS is 42 15' 58.32"

In quick testing I took the actual zoomed in Mission Editor coords that Eagle recently added to the sim (thank you indeed) and compared them. The unit was exactly at:

N 42 15 58.53

E 042 39 30.47

132.Junior continued, “every single sec in DMS is 30m in terrain, so the .21 difference you had between TPOD and actual converted location is 7m”.

7 metres is pretty good versus a vehicle for a first attempt. It’s at least closer than before, especially given the splash damage of bombs in DCS is not so amazing with the unit “health bar system”.

So the advantages here could be substantial in a multiplayer environment with cooperating parties. The Harrier does not always have to be closely engaged with the intended target. Acquire the target as closely as possible via TPOD and relay the cords, either leaving the conversion to the Hornet or doing it yourself. The Harrier can back off and look for new targets and is no longer tied to the potential maximum of 8 miles laser range, or tied to having to lase said target for the duration of the bomb flight. If anyone has done buddy lasing, they understand the awkwardness here of timing both runs, especially with an enemy CAP bearing down and time being of the essence. The delivering aircraft also can concentrate on their IP, heading and egress at a much larger JDAM standoff range. This range is very considerable when you include afterburner at high altitude.

Next I’ll attempt (no guarantees, probably will do a GUI app first) a text parser conversion via FunkyFranky’s suggested method of “Markpoints”. It’s easily possible, just needs some time. I hope to intercept a mark point ‘on event changed’ event from the scripting API, look for a keyword like JDAM or BOC, catch the following numbers, rip off the last three, multiply by 0.06 and return a new Markpoint on the target for use by the Hornet. The final workflow should look like this:

1. Harrier finds target of opportunity and places TPOD carefully on it to get Coords

2. Harrier or Hornet pilot will type the numbers into a F10 markpoint anywhere on the map and is returned a new markpoint on the map with a correctly formatted coordinate for a JDAM delivery.

The concept has to survive use in VR, for me. Coordinate manipulation is a ball ache in VR, but teamplay and overcomign obstacles is the cutting edge of fun when working together in MP. I’d also recommend if you got this far to look for “DCS Scratchpad” (github.com/rkusa/dcs-scratchpad) which provides ability to copy from a markpoint/text/clipboard and paste into a small clear text box for number manipulation in VR that you can read and type in the cockpit and the F10 map. The creator of that is a genius and we owe him beer.

Excellent write-up, thanks a lot! :thumbup:

I completed the script for it. Just running it past FunkyFranky since it's highly ripped off his weathermark script last year, well at least the markpoint manipulation is.