Loitering

[Kat Johnston]

With the increase in the battle time limit, I'm wondering how long the various aircraft can hang around waiting to shoot at things. I'm pretty sure a Harrier can't wait four hours in the air for instance - does anyone know the specifics of this sort of thing?

[Paper Tiger]

Very good point. You should raise it in the main forum though where it might get more attention.

[Yair Iny]

Well, FWIW, two hours isn't really more realistic than four. Both would require air to air refuelling unless the "two hour" pilot was willing to run really low on fuel. In practice, AFAIK, station times are far shorter. Just imagine that there is more than one plane in the rotation, but only one on station at any given time.

[Paper Tiger]

Certainly, that's the way I rationalise it in the game too. However, that's not what I'm shooting for. What I want is for the scenario designer to have the ability to withdraw certain of these 'offboard' assets after a period of time in a mission forcing the player to use it or lose it.

[Combatintman]

Loads of variables here - where did the a/c lift from (i.e. how far away is the airbase to the CAS station?), what is the loadout? Is AAR available? As a generic figure I reckon 2 hours would be about right.

[SlowMotion]

Because there are so many things that can affect this I think the best would be if scenario designer could set the time limit for each asset. Like PaperTiger suggested.

[akd]

If an air asset is available for the full scenario, it can be assumed to be replaced by hand-off during the course of the mission. If and when we are able to withdraw units and support assets just as we can add them through reinforcement, this could be handled more realistically. No need to model fuel expenditure, etc.