How do you approach a mission with unmarked targets?

[guitarxe]

I used the mission editor to generate an easy mission for my Su-25T the other day. It created a few groups of tanks, artillery, apcs and trucks, interspersed with a few short range AA defenses (mostly IR).

 

So, knowing where the enemy should be, I confidently climbed into the cockpit and, being forewarned of the IR missile threat, I climbed to 5km, approached the target area and tried to spot the targets.

Mmyeah... the Su-25T seems to severely lack sufficient sensors for this task, or maybe it's like this for all aircraft? Even knowing where the enemy should be, it still took a lot of squinting to discern the small little black dots agains the terrain. I dived in for a rocket run and promptly received an IR missile from a Linebacker up my tail pipe.

 

So yeah, the lesson there was that was a really dumbass way to fly a mission :doh:

 

Does anyone have some tips on how such missions should be conducted? I really have no clue...

[slowhand]

Learn to loiter just outside the target area then find a pt to start from an pan and scan till ya find what u need to kill..and try not to over fly your target..:thumbup:

[chardly38]

Thats the fun of the Frog

[Exorcet]

In a situation like this in real life you'd probably have eyes on the ground helping you, another aircraft assisting in finding targets, or a detailed briefing built from intelligence.

 

To simulate the latter, take a close look at the terrain where you placed the units. Look for helpful land marks to assist with finding targets (rivers, hills, forests, cities, buildings, etc). Also place way points to help you find your way.

 

You mentioned flying high to avoid a SAM threat, but keep in mind that will really hinder you ability to see things. Would it be possible to use terrain masking instead of high flying to perform your attack?

[AtaliaA1]

Even if U do not use his technique U will learn athin'er2.

 

 

Ralfis' Wild Weasel.

[guitarxe]

Ok, so then what if I did something like this instead:

 

 

 

 

I would imagine the area with known enemies as a red circle, and a do not cross line before it. And then just fly a lazy figure 8 while trying to spot enemies from the side of the window. Take out what I spot on the edges first and slowly move in further and further?

 

The gimbal limits of the Shkval wouldn't allow for it to be used in such a scenario to help with spotting targets though. Although, is the Shkval even intended to assist with target spotting? Or only to acquire the target once the general area of the target is known?

[jib]

5Km is quite high to spot targets with your eyeball you were in the Su25-T so would have been able to use the Shkval to scan the area and spot the target, then it would be best to engage the IR thread with vikhr missiles.

 

If you where in the su25 that doesn't have Shkval I usally fly at 3km to spot target while still avoiding basic IR missiles.

[guitarxe]

I tried the same mission again, but this time made liberal use of the F10 map to view the location of enemies in relation to terrain. That really helped a lot. I was able to use the Shkval to scan the terrain in the area where the enemy should be and was able to spot them without too much difficulty.

I'm just wondering if that's kind of cheating.

[Exorcet]

One can't cheat if they're the only one playing the game. It's not an issue online because the host can choose to allow or disallow F10.

 

As far as realism goes, the F10 map isn't a deal breaker. You would likely have something like the F10 presented to you in the briefing as well as marked up on your kneepad map. In addition you could also receive directions from command and control or possible ground forces. As some of these things are not really available in sim, F10 makes for an OK substitute.

[LFCChameleon_Silk]

you can descend and scan from outer edge with eyeball and ascend once you have the spot, in the A-10 you can't really do this since its a pain to climb up again but the su-25T can do it no sweat.