Precision artillery strike. How to call it in?

[A Canadian Cat]

Supposedly, Russian manuals call for 3x rounds to assure hitting a tank. All the prior from memory, so don't put money on it.)

My in game experience is that if you make the call with three rounds you will at the very list get an M kill on an M1 if not more. I dropped a lot of precision Russian rounds on M1 tanks during testing and I do not re call one getting away. Could happen but pretty unlikely. The one thing that I did just notice is that if a tank moves after the mission is called it will miss. The lazer designation seems to only happen on calling the mission.

This does not seem right to me - but I am no expert. If the process Ken is talking about is accurate then the game is not quite doing that. Anyone have a source on what the limits are on target movement after the round is away? Obviously there have to be limits on how far from the original aimed location the target can move. And I suppose it could be any movement but that seems wrong.

 

I really hope that was just a case of very bad luck or an exceptionally incompetent FO as it really shouldn't be that difficult.

 

I has to be.

 

Is this realistic? I doubt 152mm round whould detonate unless it hit shaft of the tree.

Also don't forget trees are a bit abstracted too some of those leaves could really be big branches. Or really passing through trees will have some non zero chance of triggering. It could even be a chance of 1 too beats me.

[Apocal]

It's a common problem.  Russian HE-Frag does it too.

 

It makes sense though, you're fusing something that has to instantaneously decide if it it's hit something or not.  If you want it exploding hitting mud and doing casualties, vs exploding 7 inches under the mud, you have to make some compromises.  Most fuses can have the settings dialed down or otherwise adjusted to prevent hail induced detonations or something.    

 

Nowadays our contact fuzes for 155 and 5" have something called an "interrupter" that prevents rain, hail, snow, gusts of wind, etc. from setting them off. I don't remember exactly how long that has been a thing though.

Edited February 17, 2015 by Apocal

[Michael Emrys]

The one thing that I did just notice is that if a tank moves after the mission is called it will miss. The lazer designation seems to only happen on calling the mission.

This does not seem right to me - but I am no expert.

 

Hmmm. If the round is GPS guided rather than laser homing, that would be the case. What I don't know (yet) is which of those applies to the rounds in use, but I bet somebody here knows.

 

Edit: Just looked up the Excaliber and it is GPS guided. So yes, if the target moves, the round will probably miss. Now what about the Russian round? According to the game manual, all Russian precision munitions in the game are laser guided. My guess is that they might be good to hit moving targets as long as the laser designator does not lose LOS before the round arrives.

 

Michael

Edited February 18, 2015 by Michael Emrys

[Vanir Ausf B]

US precision rounds are GPS guided, Russian and Ukrainian are laser guided. And yes, the laser guided systems should be able to hit targets moving below a certain speed. I am not sure why they presently cannot, but it will be brought up with BFC at some point.

[falcon2000]

Also with regards to gps rounds, it's not so much if they move after fire mission is called in my experience but if moved after round out. I've called an xcal strike an a uav spotted tank, next turn tanks moves forward maybe 50 to 60 yards to new position then stops. Still in uav coverage though. Fire mission complete / round out, slammed turret roof and ammo cooked of a few seconds later. Was beautiful. Long as they are stationary and visible at round fired, it seems the gps tags are updated. If they move out just as the shot goes then it's Mr. Murphy having a laugh at your expense. If they're rolling, either you plan on them stopping before on the way, or PEBKAC.

[Michael Emrys]

Long as they are stationary and visible at round fired, it seems the gps tags are updated. If they move out just as the shot goes then it's Mr. Murphy having a laugh at your expense.

 

That sounds entirely reasonable.

 

Now I wonder about laser guided rounds. My guess is it doesn't matter whether the spot is on the target until the round enters its search cone during the terminal phase. As long as the original coordinates were close enough, the round should pick up the spot and guide.

 

Michael

[Sulman]

That sounds entirely reasonable.

 

Now I wonder about laser guided rounds. My guess is it doesn't matter whether the spot is on the target until the round enters its search cone during the terminal phase. As long as the original coordinates were close enough, the round should pick up the spot and guide.

 

Michael

 

I had a Russian FO get killed by smalls arm fire (he was spotted by the BMP he was lasing) and the target still got destroyed after; how much later I can't be sure. 

[Michael Emrys]

I had a Russian FO get killed by smalls arm fire (he was spotted by the BMP he was lasing) and the target still got destroyed after; how much later I can't be sure. 

 

If the original shot was very accurate, and the round managed to pick up the laser spot for any part of its terminal phase, then if you were lucky, the round could very well still impact the target. But all this is speculative, you must understand.

 

Michael

[Sulman]

If the original shot was very accurate, and the round managed to pick up the laser spot for any part of its terminal phase, then if you were lucky, the round could very well still impact the target. But all this is speculative, you must understand.

 

Michael

 

I should add it didn't quite hit. It landed inches away from the side, but this was enough to get the crew to bail and for the vehicle to be classed as knocked-out. 

Edited February 19, 2015 by Sulman