Mixed A/G gun?

I'm confused how to utilize both gun and air to ground ordinance in a attack run.

With Zuni rockets, it seems like you cannot use the gun as the trigger now fires the forward facing rockets.

In bombing mode, it seems like you can use the gun when the mixed a/g gun is switched to on, but is completely ineffective because the HUD does not provide any cue that tells you where the shells will strike. Plus because you are bombing, your firing window is extremely small, as you don't want to be blasted by your own bombs but firing it too far away without a targeting cue for the gun makes hitting anything impossible.

Am I missing something?

You can fire the gun when the weapon selector is on gun, but it fires regardless of the a/g mixed gun switch position. I am taking about when the weapon selector is in the off position, which is required to get the HUD in air to ground mode.

why would you want to use both?

why would you want to use both?

I'm more curious what the purpose of this a/g mixed gun switch is.

Cause it makes sense to couple guns and rockets because they're both forward firing, but the mixed a/g switch setting doesn't matter with rockets. But the switch works with bombs, which makes no sense to me cause the gun is forward firing and the bombs are dropped and even then you are not given a gun cue to aim.

I'm more curious what the purpose of this a/g mixed gun switch is.

With the switch set to off, the HUD will give you CCIP symbology for the gun as the primary A/G weapon.

With the switch set to mixed, the HUD will give you CCIP/CCRP symbology for bombs, but you can still use the gun as a secondary A/G weapon.

(Not sure how rockets play into that as I never use them with the Tomcat, just like IRL)

From the manual (scroll up a bit):

Mixed Gun Mode

The gun can also be used at the same time as another air-to-ground munition is selected by setting the A/G GUN switch on the armament panel (on the RIO left vertical panel) to MIXED. This enables the trigger to fire the gun but no HUD symbology is available for the gun as it’s being used to display release data for the selected munition. In this mode the pilot needs to estimate the gun impact point manually with the ADL as the only reference on the HUD.

the symbology is for the bombs/rockets and the gun you have to walk into the target manually

It is more like a backup mode I would say. The better course of action if you want to do strafing runs, etc. is to simply set the weapon selector to gun, which will give you a2g gun symbology in the hud, if its mode is set to a2g. Note that the release symbology disappears when WS is set to gun, and the gun symbology appears. Additionally, when rockets are selected, you cannot use mixed gun, as the trigger releases the rockets, too. However if you select gun again on WS, you will be able to use gun instead of rockets.

In that sense it is best treated as either or, rather than mixed. Personally I never use that, I also see not much benefit in it.

I'm guessing the either/or symbology is because there's a limit to how many things the HUD can draw simultaneously?

I'm guessing the either/or symbology is because there's a limit to how many things the HUD can draw simultaneously?

My guess is that the WCS does not have enough computing power to calculate both the impact points of the bombs + the gun at the same time.

The better course of action if you want to do strafing runs, etc. is to simply set the weapon selector to gun

... and set the A/G gun switch in the RIO pit to OFF (not mixed!). Now you get CCIP indication for the gun.

In that sense it is best treated as either or, rather than mixed. Personally I never use that, I also see not much benefit in it.

Same :)

I'm guessing the either/or symbology is because there's a limit to how many things the HUD can draw simultaneously?

The Tomcat HUD can only display one crosshair and one diamond, which can be a bit limiting especially in A/A mode.

Rule 1: If its forward Firing, its the trigger

Rule 2: If its dropping ordinance its the pickle button

Rule 3: you can only ever have one forward firing weapon at a time