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Air Controllers Help


Cpl Steiner

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In the old days of "Shock Force" your JTAC or whatever could bring in multiple simultaneous air strikes. When the "Normandy" game came out they restricted it to one air strike only, which I thought was due to the lower technology back in WWII. Now we have an ultra-modern setting to game in again, but it seems the air strikes are handled like WWII ones, at least for the Ukrainians that is (the only side I have played so far that had air support).

 

So, is it the case in CM:BS that if you are given say 4 attack helicopters you are more or less forced to call them all in together in a single strike mission? I can't see any alternative other than having more air controllers on map. This would not be so bad if you could call in a "linear" strike, which would spread the helicopters attacks around a bit, but as it is you have to call it in as a "point" or "area" strike only, and you cannot "adjust fire" once the helicopters are doing their attack runs. If you want them to hit something outside of the target area you have to tell them to "cease fire" and then go throug the entire 11 minute odd process of contacting them again for another mission.

Edited by Cpl Steiner
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It is correct that one air controller can call one mission at a time. However once the call has been made and is running they should be able to call another one, I think I have that correct. So you can call two hellos on a mission and once they start working you can call the other two on a new mission and keep going like that. But also have a look and see if you have any other air controllers - you might find another one around some where, or is this a QB?

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It is correct that one air controller can call one mission at a time. However once the call has been made and is running they should be able to call another one, I think I have that correct. So you can call two hellos on a mission and once they start working you can call the other two on a new mission and keep going like that. But also have a look and see if you have any other air controllers - you might find another one around some where, or is this a QB?

 

It was the "Ambush" battle, in which as the Ukrainians you get 4 "Hind" attack helicopters and a single Air Controller.

 

I will try it again and see if I can call 2 of them and then the other 2 once the first pair are overhead and making their attack runs. That is slightly preferable to calling in all 4 at once.

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It is correct that one air controller can call one mission at a time. However once the call has been made and is running they should be able to call another one, I think I have that correct. So you can call two hellos on a mission and once they start working you can call the other two on a new mission and keep going like that. But also have a look and see if you have any other air controllers - you might find another one around some where, or is this a QB?

 

I am returning to this thread as I have not found any evidence that air controllers are freed up to call in more air strikes once an air strike they have called in is running. In my replay of the "Ambush" scenario, the Ukrainian air controller was shown as "busy" for the entire time the first helicopter was making its attack runs. Maybe this is accurate but players should bear it in mind when calling in strikes as it may be more efficient to call in several aircraft per strike using the multi-select function rather than call in each aircraft one at a time, especially considering the lengthy delay before the aircraft start making their attacks runs (10 or 11 minutes delay in this scenario).

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Yes, an FO or a Air Controller can only control one mission at a time, with the exception being a micro-UAV (Raven or Zala).

Aircraft operate on different frequencies and certain aircraft operate on different types of radios (HF/VHF). An air controller (or FO) can only process one mission at a time in a CAS environment.

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It's worth keeping in mind that units other than air controllers/FOs can call in support. For the US PLT HQ and higher can call in air/arty/UAV so they can handle some of the air while the JTAC handles the important strikes. For the Russians I don't know if higher HQs can call air (like COY+), maybe in the recon units. I think the US gets a pretty good edge in air flexibility, while Russians and Ukrainians probably need to use their air in groups.   

 

EDIT: Looks like only air controllers can call air for Ukraine and Russia,  so that's a pretty big advantage for the US.

Edited by Ryujin
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I am returning to this thread as I have not found any evidence that air controllers are freed up to call in more air strikes once an air strike they have called in is running.

 

 

Yes, an FO or a Air Controller can only control one mission at a time, with the exception being a micro-UAV (Raven or Zala).

Oops sorry I miss lead you.

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