Status on the BK-90

Hi all,

Started flying the Viggen again after my now roughly 6 month break from it.

I was trying out the Nordic Battle Campaign based on MBots DCE yesterday and was on this strike mission against an SA-6 site where the radar unit had been previously destroyed.

So I loaded up with BK-90 and thought it was gonna be a sweet victory. 5 SA-6 launchers rather tightly placed in a group. So I fly the route, get to the ingress, follow procedures as I can understand, and launch. It misses with around 800-1000-m to the side. The Ternav was showing 0 error. Was flying in mountainous terrain so that helps I guess.

So, with my failure I decided to set up a simple training mission. Start Kutaisi, targets middle of the abandoned airstrip outside of Kobuleti City.

Loaded up with 4 BK-90 MJ-1 and headed off to the IP.

I pause in steps and try to follow the manual with HUD-symbology but it's confusing. It does not seem to match up entirely what I see on the HUD and what is described in the manual. Anyway, even though unsure if I was in the right launch parameters (due to inconsistencies between manual and in sim) I manage to get the first BK-90 launched. It flies nicely over the target waypoint and a few seconds after overflying it, the submunitions destroy 2 out of 8 BTR-80:s. Detonation was spot on though.

All good and dandy. But then I extend a 20km's or so and go in for a re-attack with the remaining BK-90's.

The following two re-attacks misses the target waypoint by roughly 600-800m.

Last time, on the ingress I notice on the HUD that the target waypoint is no longer where my targets are. I try to remedy this with a radar fix on my targets but I'm unsuccessful on getting the target waypoint close enough over my targets for the BK-90 to hit anything. The radar image (on the 15km range) and cursor is simply too inaccurate to accomplish this good enough for my last BK-90 to hit anything.

During the entirety of the mission the TerNav was showing 0 deviation/error.

The BK-90 is the only "stand-off-ish" area effect weapon and it would be nice if it was actually usable (reliable). Am I doing something wrong?

You need to know that the error is indicated by number which represents km!

So 0 means that error can be up to 999m.

The proper way to set up the attack is that you set up an IP waypoint and do a visual nav fix on it as you overfly it. This way you will minimize the error for the BK90 deployment.

However that being said, I do have feeling that nav drift is a bit high for the distances I fly. However I have no real world performance numbers to relate to it.

You need to know that the error is indicated by number which represents km!

So 0 means that error can be up to 999m.

 

The proper way to set up the attack is that you set up an IP waypoint and do a visual nav fix on it as you overfly it. This way you will minimize the error for the BK90 deployment.

 

However that being said, I do have feeling that nav drift is a bit high for the distances I fly. However I have no real world performance numbers to relate to it.

That makes sense. But still, making a radar fix on the targets should also work no? I don't know if that would be an acceptable approach IRL but seems like it should/would be.

Anyway, yes I also feel that the drift is too much. Maybe it's not, according to real world data, but sometimes I wouldn't mind having an option like the Mirage, to disable gyro drift. Sure, it's cheating, but sometimes you just want to be unrealistically efficient for the sake of fun gameplay.

... making a radar fix on the targets should also work no?

As I understand it yes. But having an lP fix point before the target will give you two benefits:

1. When you approach the target you will have less workload, no need to correct the target point (ideally) before getting to close.

2. The target area migt be hard to distinguish on the radar as you said yourself. The IP can be placed on a prominent terrain feature during planning, shoreline or river formation etc, to make the fix easy to perform, be it radar fix or over fly.

3. You don't have to expose yourself earlier than necessary. If you make a radar fix on the target you will have to pop up to do that and expose yourself to the enemy way before the actual attack.

Because of these reasons it is not an acceptable approach IRL. They use pre planned fix points that are placed on prominent terrain features before the attack actual attack run.

We're currently working with ED to update the BK90 and make the ordinance work as it should in both SP, MP- and also ensure that it correctly disperses bomblets.

In regard to using Bk-90's in the Nordic Battle campaign, I think there's also an issue where the player isn't credited with any units destroyed by Bk-90s. Don't remember if that also affects overall scoring in the campaign or not, e.g. if units destroyed by Bk-90s stay destroyed or not. But IIRC Bk-90s were basically useless in the Nordic Battle campaign due to those scoring issues.

I used the Bk-90 mix variant since it's hugely more effective than the pure MJ1 or MJ2 variants, don't know if that matters.

This was single player.

In regard to using Bk-90's in the Nordic Battle campaign, I think there's also an issue where the player isn't credited with any units destroyed by Bk-90s. Don't remember if that also affects overall scoring in the campaign or not, e.g. if units destroyed by Bk-90s stay destroyed or not. But IIRC Bk-90s were basically useless in the Nordic Battle campaign due to those scoring issues.

 

I used the Bk-90 mix variant since it's hugely more effective than the pure MJ1 or MJ2 variants, don't know if that matters.

 

This was single player.

This is because we manually spawn explosions as a workaround to not being able to eject ordinance from the BK-90.

This is because we manually spawn explosions as a workaround to not being able to eject ordinance from the BK-90.

Thanks for the clarification, it makes sense.

In regard to using Bk-90's in the Nordic Battle campaign, I think there's also an issue where the player isn't credited with any units destroyed by Bk-90s.

This was single player.

I'm guessing that's not a problem really. I don't think DCE Campaigns do anything with actual "score". It's more about checking what actual units was destroyed. So if a BK-90 destroys a complete target group, you will have accomplished the mission even though you won't be credited the kills personally.