GAU-8 on A10

[zootia 0]

I have to say I'm pretty happy with the GAU8 on the A10 at the present moment. BIS did a great job simulating the weapon. However, I have one major gripe.

The accuracy is too low!

The bullet spread is equal to that of the M134 miniguns on the AH6s and UH60s, so practically you cannot engage and destroy a T72 with one one second burst from over at least 600-800m.

The GAU8 is a bigger version of the M61 which is a bigger version of the M134. Thus, the accuracy gets higher with the size of the gun.

M134 barrel length - 0.55m

GAU8 barrel length -6.5m

So, shouldn't the GAU8 have a much tighter bullet group than the miniguns that literally "spray" bullets everywhere?

In real life the effective range for the GAU8 is 1400-1700m. We are getting about half of that in the game.

I always try to only use 2 bursts on T72s and one burst for every other vehicle to take out as much armor as possible before returning to base.(It is possible to kill a t72 in one burst but that means getting REALLY close) This means getting dangerously close to the targets before engaging, so I make sure at least half of my 1 second burst hits the target. (1 second burst in 70 rounds, so thats 35 hits per burst)

What do you guys think?

heres an interesting GAU8 mini documentary

[shadow 6]

I think the GAU-8 dispersion is fine the way it is because of the lack of an authentic flight-model. The aircraft is bouncing quite a bit when you try to aim.

My biggest gripe is the GAU-8 in Arma has  3-4 times higher rate of fire than the real GAU-8 thus you spend all your ammo too quickly.

It should take roughly 19 seconds to spend 1350 rounds. It takes roughly 5 seconds in Arma.

Second biggest gripe is the burst setting. The Hog doesnt have one, why should Arma?

But all this is just config values that are easily changed, by a user-mod if necessarry.

[whisper 0]

Second biggest gripe is the burst setting. The Hog doesnt have one, why should Arma?

ah? I though you could set the quantity per burst manually

[shadow 6]

Second biggest gripe is the burst setting. The Hog doesnt have one, why should Arma?

ah? I though you could set the quantity per burst manually

On earlier models (of the Hog) you could toggle between 2400 and 4200 rounds per minute.

On current Hogs they only use the 4200-mode.

Perhaps you are referring to the ripple and delay settings for ripple-bombing

[killaalf 0]

Second biggest gripe is the burst setting. The Hog doesnt have one, why should Arma?

According to wikipedia, it has a burst setting - "In practice, the cannon is limited to one and two-second bursts to avoid overheating and conserve ammunition;

I'll check out LOMAC once I'm home from work.

[Gisen 0]

That quote doesn't say anything about whether or not there is a burst setting in the A10.

[shadow 6]

According to wikipedia, it has a burst setting - "In practice, the cannon is limited to one and two-second bursts to avoid overheating and conserve ammunition;

I'll check out LOMAC once I'm home from work.

It also says this:

Quote[/b] ]however, there is no tech order limitation on the duration the gun may be continuously fired; therefore the pilot could in theory hold the trigger down and expend all 1174 rounds in one burst, with no damage or ill effects

In LOMAC you only have the lo and hi switch for rate of fire. But it doesnt work and the GAU-8 in LOMAC also have a too high rate of fire but not as excessive as in Arma. There is no burst-setting for the GAU-8 in LOMAC.

You have ripple- delay and quantity settings for the bombs.

[zootia 0]

rate of fire of the ArmA A10 is accurate.

The real A10 shoots at 4200 RPM. Thats 70 rounds a second.

In arma, you shoot exactly 70 rounds with 1 one second burst

[celery 8]

rate of fire of the ArmA A10 is accurate.

The real A10 shoots at 4200 RPM. Thats 70 rounds a second.

In arma, you shoot exactly 70 rounds with 1 one second burst

Have you counted the actual bullets that come out? The minigun shoots a lot less bullets than the used ammo count suggests.

[zootia 0]

You have 1350 to start with. After you shoot one one second burst, you have 1280.

1350-1280 =70

[celery 8]

You have 1350 to start with. After you shoot one one second burst, you have 1280.

1350-1280 =70

70 rounds on the paper, but what about in practice (rounds that are spawned out of the cannon)?

[-ZG-BUZZARD 0]

You have 1350 to start with. After you shoot one one second burst, you have 1280.

1350-1280 =70

70 rounds on the paper, but what about in practice (rounds that are spawned out of the cannon)?

My guess is not every round is a tracer so you wouldn't see every round, though letting a 1-sec-burst rip through a target will achieve the desired effect?

[shadow 6]

rate of fire of the ArmA A10 is accurate.

The real A10 shoots at 4200 RPM. Thats 70 rounds a second.

In arma, you shoot exactly 70 rounds with 1 one second burst

But that 1-second burst in Arma is alot quicker than 1 second.

Meassure the time it takes to spend all 1350 rounds and calculate the RoF.

It should take roughly 18.2 seconds...

[Maddmatt 1]

BUZZARD @ June 20 2007,17:06)]

You have 1350 to start with. After you shoot one one second burst, you have 1280.

1350-1280 =70

70 rounds on the paper, but what about in practice (rounds that are spawned out of the cannon)?

My guess is not every round is a tracer so you wouldn't see every round, though letting a 1-sec-burst rip through a target will achieve the desired effect?

It doesn't have tracers in the first place. And on weapons with tracers, all bullets are tracers. ArmA doesn't support having only certain rounds as tracers. Of course there are mods that can simulate that though.

Anyway, it doesn't fire 70 bullets in 1 burst even though the ammo counter goes down by 70. The same thing is done with the miniguns on the blackhawk, the ammo count will go down by 3 but only 1 bullet will be fired. You can count the bullet holes to see. And you can even open the config file to see how it's done.

I don't know why BIS does it this way, maybe to reduce network traffic in MP?

[-ZG-BUZZARD 0]

BUZZARD @ June 20 2007,17:06)]

You have 1350 to start with. After you shoot one one second burst, you have 1280.

1350-1280 =70

70 rounds on the paper, but what about in practice (rounds that are spawned out of the cannon)?

My guess is not every round is a tracer so you wouldn't see every round, though letting a 1-sec-burst rip through a target will achieve the desired effect?

It doesn't have tracers in the first place. And on weapons with tracers, all bullets are tracers. ArmA doesn't support having only certain rounds as tracers. Of course there are mods that can simulate that though.

Anyway, it doesn't fire 70 bullets in 1 burst even though the ammo counter goes down by 70. The same thing is done with the miniguns on the blackhawk, the ammo count will go down by 3 but only 1 bullet will be fired. You can count the bullet holes to see. And you can even open the config file to see how it's done.

I don't know why BIS does it this way, maybe to reduce network traffic in MP?

So BIS mixed in some blanks along with the live ammo?!?

[celery 8]

BUZZARD @ June 20 2007,17:58)]

BUZZARD @ June 20 2007,17:06)]

You have 1350 to start with. After you shoot one one second burst, you have 1280.

1350-1280 =70

70 rounds on the paper, but what about in practice (rounds that are spawned out of the cannon)?

My guess is not every round is a tracer so you wouldn't see every round, though letting a 1-sec-burst rip through a target will achieve the desired effect?

It doesn't have tracers in the first place. And on weapons with tracers, all bullets are tracers. ArmA doesn't support having only certain rounds as tracers. Of course there are mods that can simulate that though.

Anyway, it doesn't fire 70 bullets in 1 burst even though the ammo counter goes down by 70. The same thing is done with the miniguns on the blackhawk, the ammo count will go down by 3 but only 1 bullet will be fired. You can count the bullet holes to see. And you can even open the config file to see how it's done.

I don't know why BIS does it this way, maybe to reduce network traffic in MP?

So BIS mixed in some blanks along with the live ammo?!?

No no, it all adds up in the storyline as the poor Sahrani armies can't afford belts with a full amount of real ammo, so they requested 2-5 blanks per real round to reduce the costs.

So it's only realistic and realistic =

[NeMeSiS 11]

BUZZARD @ June 20 2007,17:58)]

BUZZARD @ June 20 2007,17:06)]

You have 1350 to start with. After you shoot one one second burst, you have 1280.

1350-1280 =70

70 rounds on the paper, but what about in practice (rounds that are spawned out of the cannon)?

My guess is not every round is a tracer so you wouldn't see every round, though letting a 1-sec-burst rip through a target will achieve the desired effect?  

It doesn't have tracers in the first place. And on weapons with tracers, all bullets are tracers. ArmA doesn't support having only certain rounds as tracers. Of course there are mods that can simulate that though.

Anyway, it doesn't fire 70 bullets in 1 burst even though the ammo counter goes down by 70. The same thing is done with the miniguns on the blackhawk, the ammo count will go down by 3 but only 1 bullet will be fired. You can count the bullet holes to see. And you can even open the config file to see how it's done.

I don't know why BIS does it this way, maybe to reduce network traffic in MP?

So BIS mixed in some blanks along with the live ammo?!?      

No no, it all adds up in the storyline as the poor Sahrani armies can't afford belts with a full amount of real ammo, so they requested 2-5 blanks per real round to reduce the costs.

So it's only realistic and realistic =

It has annoyed me since i noticed it on the Shilka in OFP, back then i though they did it for performance reasons, but some extra bullets shouldnt be so much of a problem nowadays right? Especially since we wont have 30 A-10's all shooting at the same time

[celery 8]

BUZZARD @ June 20 2007,17:58)]

BUZZARD @ June 20 2007,17:06)]

You have 1350 to start with. After you shoot one one second burst, you have 1280.

1350-1280 =70

70 rounds on the paper, but what about in practice (rounds that are spawned out of the cannon)?

My guess is not every round is a tracer so you wouldn't see every round, though letting a 1-sec-burst rip through a target will achieve the desired effect?

It doesn't have tracers in the first place. And on weapons with tracers, all bullets are tracers. ArmA doesn't support having only certain rounds as tracers. Of course there are mods that can simulate that though.

Anyway, it doesn't fire 70 bullets in 1 burst even though the ammo counter goes down by 70. The same thing is done with the miniguns on the blackhawk, the ammo count will go down by 3 but only 1 bullet will be fired. You can count the bullet holes to see. And you can even open the config file to see how it's done.

I don't know why BIS does it this way, maybe to reduce network traffic in MP?

So BIS mixed in some blanks along with the live ammo?!?

No no, it all adds up in the storyline as the poor Sahrani armies can't afford belts with a full amount of real ammo, so they requested 2-5 blanks per real round to reduce the costs.

So it's only realistic and realistic =

It has annoyed me since i noticed it on the Shilka in OFP, back then i though they did it for performance reasons, but some extra bullets shouldnt be so much of a problem nowadays right? Especially since we wont have 30 A-10's all shooting at the same time

Just wait 'till you see my Jet Lag deathmatch.

[Guggy 0]

Yep, the GAU-8 has a Multiplier of 5 in the A10's config. That means each SINGLE bullet decreases the count by 5 instead of 1. It seems that the Reload rate/ROF in the config only works to a certain point, because when I set multiplier to 1 my "1 Second Bursts" in fact fired for 2-3 seconds or so no matter how low I set the reload rate. I dont like the multiplier setting, but I'd be singing a different tune if I played online more often no doubt. It is most likely a lag precaution.

EDIT: Changing the Vulcan and ZSU's multiplier and ROF has made Anti-aircraft gunnery MUCH more fun

[twisted 127]

so does that 1 bullet do the damage of 5 or is the destructive capacoity the other 4 just lost? wow i don't like that but maybe just becuase i don't understand it properly.

sure it's a decision that i can understand online for lag (although with broadband like most people have got surely it's not that needed anymore).

[Adv 0]

Hi guys just wanted to let you know that at least on the M61 and probably on the GAU-8 also the barrels are aligned in such a way so that theres dispersion built into the gun system.

Each barrel fires a slightly different path then the previous, givin the high rate of rotation this produces a circle shaped impact pattern. The clearest example of this can be found in the old gun camera footage from the Israeli air force of thier air to air engagments in the 60-'s and 70's. You will see the HUD gunsight is a circle representing the pattern of the guns dispersion. I haven't seen this site used at all in modern fighters, it seems to have been replaced with more advanced displays.

I have no idea but I'd bet the GAU-8 works the same way.

Edit: In reguards to the burst settings, a many years ago it was reported that anything above 80 rounds or so could produce enough gas to present a problem for the engine on the left hand side sever enough to cause a potential failure in that engine as it vents on the left. The GAU-8 is cabale of firing many more then 80 rounds per burst but in terms of arma I suspect its something else. The damage model. Isn't it possible BIS compensated for the lack of an accurate damage model with an insane rate of fire for the GAU-8 to produce realistic results? In reality only a very few would be needed to kill everything inside the tank. Probably less then 20 good hits would kill the crew maybe even fewer assuming a lucky hit. Even one 30MM depeleted uranium shell coming into the top of turret would be pretty bad news for anyone inside. But arma has no mechanics to accurately represent this. Perhaps they just piled on the rate of fire to increase damage in a way that produces somewhat realistic real life effects.

[Gisen 0]

It doesn't.

[Adv 0]

http://www.gdatp.com/products/Gun_Systems/GAU-8A/GAU-8A.htm

As you can see .... it does. Dispersion is incorperated into the gun system.

"Dispersion 5 Milliradians Diameter, 80 Percent Circle"

This is not a result of a test, this is the manufactured spec. "80 Percent Circle" which indicated a very close group but ones thats designed not to be one bullet following another. I do think however this is a much tighter group then the M61's.

[killaalf 0]

I really don't think that they designed the gun with a given dispersion in mind, I'd say that it just cannot be avoided given the platform and the circumstances it is employed in.

Only 1 barrel fires at a given time and that barrel is always at the same position, down the centerline of the fuselage (the gun is offset to the right when seen from the top of the aircraft), so in theory the shells follow the same flightpath.

[hokum15 2]

One other reason to not fire to long... Recoil!

The effect of firing the GAU 8 for a second knocks about 50kts off your speed, which in aircraft is not good.

It shouldnt cause a stall but i guess it depends on what speed your doing.