Harrier and Laser Designator

[memnoch 0]

With the AI I mean. I set up a quick mission to test this. Myself on a hill overlooking 2 BMPs. I had a Harrier with GBU fly from the airbase down to my position.

Found that after much trial and error the option to tell the pilot to target the laser designator will only appear once some condition is met. Presumably when hes in range. He then says he is engaging but never drops a bomb. If you tell him specifically to target a vehicle he says he will then immediately after says negative. If you tell him to engage at will through the command menu again he will sometimes switch to engaging but again does nothing. What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: Oh and I am lasing the target, or sometimes a patch of ground next to the target, so the menu option to target where the LD is pointing appears but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

[twisted 128]

i'd like to know this as well.

[deevius 0]

well, i dunno but ive only seen it done once in multiplayer by some players and it was awesome sadly thats the only time ive seen it so far.

[doc_no1 0]

Make sure the pilot is part of your group,and your using a SF Recon,press the fire button to lase\lock  the tank and wait,it worked for me.

[memnoch 0]

That's exactly what I did after some trial and error. For some reason the option to attack the laser designated target is not always there but when it does you select it, the pilot acknowledges and you will see his icon at the bottom change to Engaging.......then nothing happens. He just does endless simulated bombing runs on the targets. I have checked everything on the Harrier but all defaults are maximum armour, fuel and ammo. I have set his skill to the highest as well. Nothing seems to work. I would imagine that in MP this is really cool if you can get a good spotter/pilot team going but not with AI it seems.

[jackass888 0]

i think the gbu harrier still cant drop bombs?!

[memnoch 0]

I haven't tried the other way around, i.e. me the pilot and AI recon, but I'm not that good with the Harrier at the moment and need to practice more. Now where can I find a really busy public server to try that......

[Espectro (DayZ) 0]

Never seen an AI do it in Arma. I have done it numerious times in multiplayer where I was the pilot, though

[memnoch 0]

Perhaps there is something broken somewhere. I'll try some more this afternoon with myself as the pilot. I hope I can get a Recon guy to lase a target for me.

[Noraf 0]

in sp it's rather hard,   you might want to set up a destroy waypoing

as for mp,   you got to love that combo

edit :

as for getting ai to lase a target... never happened for me

[peterj 0]

Having the AI lase a target works, you have to make sure the target is in line of sight. I haven't tried the other way around, but generally getting the AI to make good attacks from air seems hard.

[memnoch 0]

Just had limited success with AI SF Recon. Dropped a tank in the middle of the desert. Placed SF Recon about 200 odd metres away. I was in a Harrier GBU as his subordinate. As I was taking off he stated that he had spotted a tank. As I approached he said he had LD'ed the target. But this only happened as I was right over the target and just passing. So I swooped round and by then he was not training the LD on the target anymore. Even so the tank was still bracketed. But the bombs seem to have a mind of their own.

Suspecting that he really wasn't using the LD I put myself in hover mode so I could greatly reduce speed. I approached at around 150 knots at around 300 feet. I kept the nose up and waited for the laser designator. It highlighted and I released two bombs....which completely missed the target. The only success I had was flying fairly low level and dropping 3 bombs, effectively carpet bombing the target.

Another test I did was to have two SF Recons, me and an AI, and an AI Harrier pilot. As suspected the Harrier would never release bombs under any circumstances. But when I told the other SF to target the tank he would repetedly switch from the LD to his rifle and back agian. I suspect this is whats happening when I'm in the air. The range at which he LDs the target and then informs you seems to be way to small as he waits till you are practicly on top of the target. Plus I don't think he consistently does it either as a big yellow target appears on the HUD when he is using the LD but it doesn't stay on nearly long enough and at great enough range to make use of so I guess the bombs just fall unguided. Maybe this would work better with two human players but I've yet to test that.

At this point I think it would be nice of the devs. to jump in and either point out where we are going wrong or whether I am wasting my time, if you get my meaning.

[Noraf 0]

hmm, as a side note, you should even be able to lase a target for the cobra....

[memnoch 0]

Hellfires don't need that do they? They are optically tracking as far as I know.

[tj72 0]

It would be nice to have helicopters of different kinds able to support a squad in this way. Either with LD or mapclick and helis would set up a fair distance behind and basically fire ON COMMAND at where you say instead of engage at will. Jets should be able to drop GBU's and and such and be told which direction to fly in from etc.

[killaalf 0]

Hellfires don't need that do they? They are optically tracking as far as I know.

Well yes, they optically track a laser beam to the target They also come in infrared and radar guided variants. What really gets me though, is that AFAIK the AH-1 does not employ Hellfire in real life, but TOW missiles. And don't get me started on their weird flightpath that more resembles that of a Sidewinder missile.

[Noraf 0]

well, actualy, the cobra can carry a lot more different weaponds than other gunships, it can even cary the penguin anti ship missile

i don't think hellfire's are a bad choice ( althoigh, i'm pretty sure this can't be laser guided, since you can fire one, then choose a new target wile the first missiole is in the air, and fire a new one... and they'll hit different targets )

but, still, you should be able to lase targets for em....

[OblivionX 0]

Hi all... Im kind of new to the forums and the game so bare with me.

I set up a SF recon on a hill with a flying GBU plane in group. About 200 meter away on a open field I placed a T-72. I then made a civillian for me to play. He was standing next to the SF.

First time I tested the mission I heard the SF order the plane to attack the laser target. The plane circled around and dropped a bomb straight on the target. Kaboom! Cool! I thought for myself.

I then tested the mission 9 times more. Not one time did the plane dropped a bomb on the tank. 5 to 6 times the plane got into a nasty roll and crashed into the ground. The rest of the time the plane just circled around the tank. Almost like it not quite could come into the spot to drop the bombs.

I then played the SF myself. I press left mouse button to start the laser designator, then I right click the laser spot on the ground to identify that it is the laser target. I then put the laser on the tank and order the pilot to target the lasertarget. I then order the pilot to engage the target. Then nothing more happens , I stand there for 10 minutes and the plane just circle around. I even tested to order the pilot to "Fire" when he was over the tank... but nothing.

Well thats my story with the LD. I love ARMA otherwise and had a lot fun making diffrent "situations" in the editor.

[memnoch 0]

Hi OblivionX and welcome.

Your experience pretty much mirrors what I have seen including the pilot crashing! However I have never see the AI drop a bomb once, ever. I have tried different locations thinking maybe its the terrain so I used that large piece of desert with the drilling stations dotted about but nothing. There just has to be something broken here. Interesting that you said the first time it actually worked. I'm wondering about whether the weapon switching I observed may have something to do with it. I know there is a way to manually add and remove items from a units kit. I'll have to look this up as its not something I have used before. Perhaps if I spawn the SF with nothing BUT the LD he can't switch away from it?

[Duffers 0]

I know there is a way to manually add and remove items from a units kit. I'll have to look this up as its not something I have used before. Perhaps if I spawn the SF with nothing BUT the LD he can't switch away from it?

In the INIT field for your soldier (Recon) type;

removeallweapons this; this addweapon laserdesignator; this addmagazine laserbatteries

That should do it.

[colt 0]

This is how I do it (for testing):

1. In the mission editor put yourself as a recon unit and the harrier (grouped to you)

2. Put an anemy vehicle down (without fuel to stop it moving about and ammo)

3. Preview.

4. As the recon unit select your laser designator and fire it at the enemy unit e.g. bdrm

5. DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE. Don't use the command menu or click on anything. Just keep the laser pointed at the target.

6. The harrier will eventually fly over and say something like " laser designator at..."

7. DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE. Don't use the command menu or click on anything. Just keep the laser pointed at the target.

8. The harrier will start to slowly circle overhead. After about 6 or 7 'laps' it will break off and come around and bomb the target. Unfortunately this process can take around 5 - 7 minutes and seems to work about  7 times out of ten. It's not guaranteed.

I think the problems might be that the harrier doesn't fly out at a great distance to align itself up. The max range it flys out to is about 1900 metres and it's turning circle isn't tight enough to enable it to line up a straight bombing run.

[Balschoiw 0]

I guess the reason why all air <-> ground fights don´t work that well with aircraft dependant weapons (missiles, cannon, unguided missiles) is that the AI has problems in actually getting it´s nose on the target as the flightpath AI seems to hinder it from doing so and the physics don´t allow the pilot to take the plane where he wants it to go.

Eventually they will tilt the plane or chopper to get them there, but in most of the cases it doesn´t work.

I guess it will be fixed though in one of the next patches as it already has been reported.

[memnoch 0]

Just managed to get it to work but it took an SF Recon with nothing but LD and three harriers. In one instance two of them dropped bombs simultaneously! Quite impressive to watch. Now the problem is how do you actually get it to work as the pilot as now I can safely assume the target is painted there doesn't appear to be any HUD cues as to the optimal point of weapon release. For me they don't appear to be very guided at all and is more luck than judgement.

EDIT: Something else I noticed is that the visible part of the laser is huge and is way of centre, to the bottom right. Either the beam should be invisible or just a small dot IMHO.

[GimpyBassturd 0]

I remember trying to drop bombs on targets in OFP in RTS matches and even with both human players in the same group , couldnt get it to work

[max power 21]

Just managed to get it to work but it took an SF Recon with nothing but LD and three harriers. In one instance two of them dropped bombs simultaneously! Quite impressive to watch. Now the problem is how do you actually get it to work as the pilot as now I can safely assume the target is painted there doesn't appear to be any HUD cues as to the optimal point of weapon release. For me they don't appear to be very guided at all and is more luck than judgement.

EDIT: Something else I noticed is that the visible part of the laser is huge and is way of centre, to the bottom right. Either the beam should be invisible or just a small dot IMHO.

Spotting lasers are huge but invisible. You should be able to see them with night vision goggles, though.

IRL, the optimal distance for dropping laser guided bombs is far away.... like, depending on speed and altitude, many km. Try far away first..