Laser fire toggle

Currently when I drop a gbu-12 the laser fire button must be depressed the entire time until impact instead of being pressed once to fire and once to stop firing the laser. Is there no toggle available?

no.

I mapped button 17 in warthog thr.

works perfect.

Laser fire toggle

You could join the “modern” air fleet, fly the 14, where the LANTIRN actually turns your laser on and off for you automatically! It’s PFM!

Currently when I drop a gbu-12 the laser fire button must be depressed the entire time until impact instead of being pressed once to fire and once to stop firing the laser. Is there no toggle available?

Technically the laser doesn't need to be fired 'the entire time until impact' as you say, only in the last 8 or so seconds of flight. If you have performed a stable CCRP release on a good tgt location then ideally the bomb would actually hit the target regardless of laser guidance or not (wind allowing etc), it is still just a bomb that you targeted and released using CCRP, with 'added' precision available.

You never lase immediately following release of GBU with Paveway I & II guidance anyway to allow the bomb to follow it's natural ballistic trajectory, and gain plenty of kinetic energy to allow precision guidance later in flight, and the associated loss of energy due to manoeuvring. With early Paveway I & II guidance if you lase immediately then the bomb will guide itself off its natural trajectory directly at the laser spot - which could mean the bomb possibly won't have enough energy to even reach the target due to the 'bang bang' method of canard movement/course correction that eats up a lot of kinetic energy.

So 'holding the trigger' for a few seconds is not quite as onerous a task as you initially thought.

If you have good hotas drivers you can set whatever button you use for first stage detent a toggle.

Technically the laser doesn't need to be fired 'the entire time until impact' as you say, only in the last 8 or so seconds of flight. If you have performed a stable CCRP release on a good tgt location then ideally the bomb would actually hit the target regardless of laser guidance or not (wind allowing etc), it is still just a bomb that you targeted and released using CCRP, with 'added' precision available.

Theoretically PGM without guidance don't behave like low-drag GP bombs. They have addon movable fins and other components that generate more drag and which may or may not be properly aligned; that may interfere in unforeseen ways from a standard ballistic trajectory. In other words, without guidance PGM are less accurate than dumb bombs. (At least in theory!)

I think there should be an option in the laser page (List > UFC 0 Misc > Laser ST Time X secs) which is currently missing (among many other features), to set the laser firing timing.

Currently in this same page it is only possible to set the laser codes.

Theoretically PGM without guidance don't behave like low-drag GP bombs. They have addon movable fins and other components that generate more drag and which may or may not be properly aligned; that may interfere in unforeseen ways from a standard ballistic trajectory. In other words, without guidance PGM are less accurate than dumb bombs. (At least in theory!)

Interesting theory - I will leave a picture below of two 'dumb' weapons the CCRP computer can calculate a release point for and subsequently hit the target, and let you decide if the CCRP mode of weapons release, which knows what weapon you are dropping, can handle the 'movable fins and other components that generate more drag' of a 'PGM'.

I think there should be an option in the laser page (List > UFC 0 Misc > Laser ST Time X secs) which is currently missing (among many other features), to set the laser firing timing.

Yes you are correct, there is an automatic laser firing time which is missing from the ICP along with 95% of the other functions available from that panel at the moment, see below.