CAS being underpowered

[Sgt Joch]

Here is the FAC procedure in more detail. This is from late 60s/early 70s in Vietnam:

Quote

   FACs directed fighters performing all types of close air support: preparing landing zones, escorting road convoys, hitting enemy troops who were in contact with friendlies, and covering troop helicopter airlift flights. On preplanned missions, the FAC was briefed the night before by the ALO. The controller’s first job on a mission was to pinpoint the target himself so he could pass its location on to the oncoming fighters. This normally presented little problem, as he arrived about half an hour before strike time and learned by radio from the ground commander the target’s description, the results that the commander hoped to get from the strike, and the location of the nearest friendly troops. The controller then advised the ground commander of what ordnance his fighters were carrying, what the plan of attack was, and how the ground troops should prepare themselves and mark the target with smoke.

  After vectoring the fighters into the target area, the controller briefed them by radio on the target’s characteristics, the weather, what ground fire to expect, the location of the friendly units, how the fighters should orbit while the controller marked the target with smoke rockets, where the controller would be during the target runs, in which sequence the fighters should drop their ordnance, the best headings for the fighters to use for their strikes, how they should break away after their runs, and the location of the nearest airfields and best bailout areas should a strike pilot experience an emergency.

  One 2.75 white-phosphorous marker rocket, or smoke rocket, usually sufficed for the controller to mark the target for the fighters. The fighters ordinarily made three to five passes on the target, first dropping hard bombs followed by cluster bombs and napalm. The controller looked on from a nearby position where he monitored the action and, if necessary, adjusted his smoke markings between passes. He guided in the fighters on each pass, always keeping an eye on the friendly positions to avoid striking them by accident. The controllers final responsibility during a strike was to evaluate the results. While the strike planes orbited overhead, the FAC flew over and around the target to perform a bomb damage assessment (BDA). He then gave his preliminary damage report to the flight leader of the strike planes and released them to return to their bases

For immediate strikes the controller process was almost identical to that of preplanned requests, with two exceptions. In the first instance, since it was an emergency, the controller had to identify the target and the location of the friendly units much more rapidly than with preplanned missions. The shortness of time made this a particularly difficult procedure. Second, the FAC had to decide quickly whether to radio back to the division or brigade for additional strikes from the DASC. Other than this urgency, the sequence of events was similar to that performed on preplanned missions.

01preface.qxd (defense.gov)  (pp. 316-317)

Edited May 5, 2021 by Sgt Joch

[MikeyD]

Perceptions of effectiveness depends on which foot the shoe is on. When you experience Russian jets dropping anti-tank cluster munitions on top of your expensive Abrams MBTs you won't feel that CAS is underpowered. 

[Lethaface]

3 hours ago, Sgt Joch said:

The Mavericks in CW are the early model with optical guidance which uses a low resolution black and white monitor. Accurate enough to see and target, but not enough to say if it is friendly or enemy. Plus you are talking about a single seat plane where the pilot has to do everything at once (except for F4 of course). 

The ability to be able to ID targets really began with the Pave Tack pods deployed in the F-111 and F-4 beginning in 1982.

Currently the Maverick is probably too accurate for the period with a PK close to 100%, but that is another discussion. 

I may not have explained it properly. The game assumes there is an abstract airborne FAC so gound troops can call in air strikes, but the call goes to an airborne FAC, hence the delay. As it is the 13 min delay is probably too short, it should probably be in the 20 minutes range, but this is a game after all.

That is a compromise that has been around since SF days since you have to account for helos, as well as fast jets. It basically means there is an enemy target around that spot, see if you can find it and kill it. We can argue about how big it should be, but it would not be realistic IMHO to have planes roaming all over the battlefield picking off enemy units at low risk to friendly units.

Didn't knew about the modelled abstraction regarding the FAC, so thanks for that.

Anyway I'm not advocating for 'low risk to friendlies' especially. AFAIK the current areat targets aren't low risk to friendlies at all!
In CMSF2 nor CMBS I never had any issue that I can remember regarding the size of the area I wanted targeted. Although I don't remember if the box sizes are the same.

I guess that mainly due to the expanded combat areas in CMCW some larger size is warranted. I had info on a MRB moving along a road, but it turned out the bastiges moved slightly beyond my assigned 'kill zone' and the A-10 flying over looked at the procedures and told me 'computer says no' and the MRB happily proceeded along it's route while the A-10 either milled around or declared winchester.

Maybe the type of strike could be differentiated for different loadouts or types of planes? Like a F-4D carrying (cluster)bombs or rockets can only be assigned a point target  where it will drop ordnance (ideally using a vector/line), but not have the ability to scan for targets inside an area. While planes with ATGM / cannon loadout and ground attack capability (otherwise they wouldn't be in CM) can also can for targets in a limited zone but with high risk to friendlies , with helicopters being more free and but also more vulnerable to AA.

 

[Lethaface]

1 hour ago, MikeyD said:

Perceptions of effectiveness depends on which foot the shoe is on. When you experience Russian jets dropping anti-tank cluster munitions on top of your expensive Abrams MBTs you won't feel that CAS is underpowered. 

A-10s did a great job when on target as well! Cluster bombs, Mavericks and the 30mm.

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by Lethaface