RB4 anti-ship missiles

Hey boys,

Just tried the Viggen that I bought to see what it's like to get a heatblur plane, and must admit I love it! Really good immersion, and love the "kinda old but still some impressive advanced features" style of the avionics. And ground radar is gorgeous as well!

Had my first try on ships, and bear with me if I need to read the manual more but, when I use those less advanced RB04E missiles, they often just go straight between the ships and miss...

First tries I kept the target waypoint in B... And was never hitting.... Then tried to switch to a M type of waypoint and started to have some hits..... But far from 100%. Not even sure this was the reason why I had 0 hits.... ?

I try not to use the "grupp" mode as from what is said in the manual it seems it could give some issues depending on ship spread, but I still seem to miss a lot.

Is there some trick to kill em all?

Other funny stuff: I thought they where fire and forget but if I crash after launch (blackout of the death........) they kinda explode or dive pretty much at the same time my plane crashes...

Thanks for your help, this is some hard aircraft to start with "old but advanced" avionics style :D

Here is a good tutorial on the subject:

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Usually I think a miss I due to using the group mode. I can't really think of any other reason.

As for the missile exploding when you die, if I remember correctly it's a known bug.

Thanks for the link! Basically I think I'm doing pretty much exactly what is done in that tutorial.

Except at first not setting the waypoint in target mode, which is actually dumb as moving the WP will obviously destroy the navigation system precision.....

What is unclear to me is the radar role into this. Is the radar only there to help us finding the ship position and having a correct firing range cue, or is the position we fix in the radar is somehow used by missile guidance?

What is unclear to me is the radar role into this. Is the radar only there to help us finding the ship position and having a correct firing range cue, or is the position we fix in the radar is somehow used by missile guidance?

The missile has its own radar, but it has a range of approximately 8 kilometres and a search zone width of ± 28°, so it is used on the end phase of its flight ... the aircraft radar passes to the missile the target location just before launch, and that is used for the first phase of flight, until the missile radar takes over.

Mmmm so it means that by default the missile will always go for target WP, not just the aircraft bearing?

I thought you could quickly shoot two ships by firing at one, reorienting the plane, firing second one, but it would mean you need to refix target WP, or use 2 separate target WP to do so?

Unless the "pointing the aircraft" technique is possible by staying in NAV mode like I think I remember it works for other weapons?

Sorry this is still a bit fuzzy to me, but I'll soon be an expert :D

The missile will just go straight upon launch untill it can detect a target with its own onboard radar which it will then go after (in ENKEL mode; it's morecomplicated in GRUPP mode). Waypoints don't matter and neither does the radar. They both only help you personally to find the target and get a range indication (the radar will give you a nice range display in ANF mode), but the missile doesn't care. Just launch the missile in the direction of the target ship and it will hunt it down if it is in range, which is ~30km and not 8km @Rudel_chw.

It can be helpful though to create a target waypoint somewhere and then perform a radar fix on the enemy ship once it shows up on the radar. You can then use that target waypoint to get bearing and range indication to the target and itn also helps if you plan to come back later (provided the target is stationary).

... Just launch the missile in the direction of the target ship and it will hunt it down if it is in range, which is ~30km and not 8km @Rudel_chw.

Thanks for the info, but the 8 Km was the missile radar seeker search range (info taken from Heatblur's manual) ... not the missile flight range :)

Thanks for the info, but the 8 Km was the missile radar seeker search range (info taken from Heatblur's manual) ... not the missile flight range :)

Oh, I didn't realize that, sorry. That's absolutly correct indeed :thumbup:

Mmmm so it means that by default the missile will always go for target WP, not just the aircraft bearing?

 

I thought you could quickly shoot two ships by firing at one, reorienting the plane, firing second one, but it would mean you need to refix target WP, or use 2 separate target WP to do so?

 

Unless the "pointing the aircraft" technique is possible by staying in NAV mode like I think I remember it works for other weapons?

 

Sorry this is still a bit fuzzy to me, but I'll soon be an expert :D

In general pointing the aircraft works because as already mentioned the RB04 will fly straight in the direction fired and detect the target . Now supposing that the two ships were within the 23' cone of the seeker at the same time then both missiles could track one target or both. However if you're two targets were distant enough from you perpendicularly simply aim the nose at one, release, aim nose at the other, release.

An important consideration however is if both missiles will pass the first target, they will always go for the first target. Effectively the RB04 is not exactly the most smart smart-weapon and it will always select the first target it sees.

The RB15 series on the other hand - can be given far more commands and potentially attack multiple targets (there is no communication between missiles so the chance always exists for the same target selected) and they WILL utilize navigation points and ignore a que like pointing the nose towards a different target.

I think a lot of people think of the RB04 and RB15 as the same munition just one with extended range - which is wrong. The RB04 is much more useful in a patrol and target scenario, the RB15 in a strike scenario.

Don't forget the 40 second battery on the RB04! I am sure this messes a lot of people's testing up!

Effectively the RB04 is not exactly the most smart smart-weapon and it will always select the first target it sees.

In ENKEL mode, yes, but there are various GRUPP modes that will take care of that.

In ENKEL mode, yes, but there are various GRUPP modes that will take care of that.

Absolutely correct, I failed to explain that in detail when I wrote that, good job policing that up!

Just getting the finishing touches on a new tutorial video for the RB04E (troubleshooting some audio issues) but will post that later today (I hope). I did cover in detail there the differences between GRUPP and ENKEL, as well as considerations like "in depth" groups within 2700m.

That last part I did think was rather curious - if the principle consideration was convoys and landing craft, the later almost always approach parallel to the shoreline, which would require the pilot to approach along the shoreline's axis - greater exposing them to AAA. Otherwise the seeker would ignore the formation.

The RB04 is, like everything on the Viggen, very easy to use with absolute consistency - so long as you know all the rules.

Are you targeting civilian ships in Persian Gulf? Because if so I’m not sure it will find those. In implementing a fix for that right now, hope it works.

Here it is... the tutorial I mentioned...

Here it is... the tutorial I mentioned...

 

Thanks a lot, I leaved my suggestions on YT :)

Here it is... the tutorial I mentioned...

 

Thanks for the video, great to see another Viggen tutorial!

Thanks a lot, I leaved my suggestions on YT :)

Thanks for the feedback - glad you guys liked it. You should be able to see the changes in the Illumination bombing one I also published today (only had to run 2 takes on that one! fixed the audio too!) Let me know if there's one you guys think is more needed than another - I am just plugging away until I cover it all :pilotfly:

Hey boys,

 

Just tried the Viggen that I bought to see what it's like to get a heatblur plane, and must admit I love it! Really good immersion, and love the "kinda old but still some impressive advanced features" style of the avionics. And ground radar is gorgeous as well!

 

Had my first try on ships, and bear with me if I need to read the manual more but, when I use those less advanced RB04E missiles, they often just go straight between the ships and miss...

 

First tries I kept the target waypoint in B... And was never hitting.... Then tried to switch to a M type of waypoint and started to have some hits..... But far from 100%. Not even sure this was the reason why I had 0 hits.... ?

 

I try not to use the "grupp" mode as from what is said in the manual it seems it could give some issues depending on ship spread, but I still seem to miss a lot.

 

Is there some trick to kill em all?

 

Other funny stuff: I thought they where fire and forget but if I crash after launch (blackout of the death........) they kinda explode or dive pretty much at the same time my plane crashes...

 

Thanks for your help, this is some hard aircraft to start with "old but advanced" avionics style :D

Re the last observation in your original post, I asked a similar question here and Cobra847 kindly explained. The only way Heatblur could apply their own missile logic was to make them laser-guided, and when the player dies that guidance is lost.