Laser-guided bombs

[dardunc 0]

Does anyone know how you get the laser-guided bomb targetting to work on the Harrier's GBU-12 weapon. All I can manage is to drop the things when I think they might land on a traget. I have seen a youtube vid of a guy using the laser-site, but have no idea how to do it myself!

Cheers

[hailstorm 4]

the aircraft unfortunately, cannot self-designate targets - your aiming (as a pilot) is up to a ground troop armed with a 'laser designator' (i think the US scout has one), to point out targets for you - you can lock onto this laser dot and your bombs will home in on it.

btw, you probably should have used the search feature first, i'm sure this answer has been stated somewhere before.

[mmd 0]

Here's a Youtube video that shows a quick way to set yourself up to use the GBU. Link

[volkov956 0]

U can also dive bomb a target if need be just make sure to pull up from the dive before crashing into the ground or getting hurt by ur own bomb

[LtCmdrBoon 0]

the above post was right.

in multi player, u need 1 guy to have a laser desig (and battrey! to run off somewhere, and light something up, be it a house, tank or concerntration of NME troops, it dont matter.

as pilot, you will get this as a red dot target that u can lock onto. As long as your flying directly at it (give or take a degree or so) and your speed, height and angle is within limits, u will get a 'lock', then just drop off 1 or 2 for bigger targets, power up and get out of there.

[dardunc 0]

Thanks HailStorm for the info. I did do a search on the forums as well as google and nothing turned up in the way of instructions on how to use the bombs. I even had a look at the instruction books which come with the game boxes, but BI isnt that big on explaining how to use its weapons of war lol...

mmd - awesome video, now I know how it should be done. I created a scenario so I could practive the aircraft, but didnt throw in any of those scouts.

volkov956 & LtCmdrBoon, since the post I have managed to hit a few targets without the laser guider, but it more often than not ends in disaster (usually I blow myself up with the bomb because I am too low).

Cheers all, appreciate the advice!!!

[smellyjelly 0]

One issue that I've been having with the laser designator is that it seems to have stopped working. I cannot find a reason for it, but the laser just won't show up.

[frederf 0]

The old Harrier in ArmA had the ALQ whatever pod visibly modeled on the aircraft with 5x bombs, but they removed it in a patch and changed the bomb load to 6. The ALQ pod in real life would have enabled self designation of laser ordinance.

Inside of a certain radius the laserdot is rendered as a white blob. Also make sure you have batteries in it and it's on.

[smellyjelly 0]

Inside of a certain radius the laserdot is rendered as a white blob. Also make sure you have batteries in it and it's on.

Yeah, I know about the radius, but is there any special way to turn it on other than getting it out and clicking the mouse?

[PuFu 4600]

You can only "paint" targets for vehicles on your side. So if you have a mission with vanilla units/vehicles, you won't be able to use a harrier and LD a target with a RACS soldier (ie: domination)

On the other hand, you can have a SU equipped with GBUs (all you have to do is remove his default weapons and ammo in the init and add the GBUs there. i don't know all the names of the weapons/ammo by heart but i have used this in one of my missions) and have SLA units LD targets for that.

Besides laser designators can be used not only for the gbus but also for other precise hit runs - you can use that with a SU for a precise strafe over a designated area, rather than marking it on the map.

[subs17 9]

One issue that I've been having with the laser designator is that it seems to have stopped working. I cannot find a reason for it, but the laser just won't show up.

Did you bring batterys?

[Dallas 9]

I just recreated the original "Laser Designators and the GBU" and it still works.

[smellyjelly 0]

One issue that I've been having with the laser designator is that it seems to have stopped working. I cannot find a reason for it, but the laser just won't show up.

Did you bring batterys?

Yeah, I would just put down a recon, but the laser wouldn't work.

Anyways, I tried it again and it's fine now, although I'm still not sure what was wrong.

[subs17 9]

This is what we need for the LGBs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0hOriMi39c&e

A sight similar to this to lase or buddy lase lgbs.

[-HUNTER- 1]

Fly at certain height and certain speed, then watch where it lands... Practice flying at that height with that speed.

[Radius 0]

Ok, never done the LGB run myself but just so I'm totally clear...

To get a full lock, you have to acquire the target, then point your nose at it for a second or two before releasing and that gives the full diamond reticle lock, correct?

[frederf 0]

One thing to remember is also that laser targets are different for different sides. Thus you have to be careful that the laser target your designator makes is the same side as the aircraft dropping the bomb, otherwise you won't see it.

I wrote a manual of sorts for GBU-12 release back in the 4IB days. Basically the laser detector on the airplane should discover the laser target in the 1500m to 3000m range and then you can designate it (white box). After designating you position your aircraft in the best point and speed to release the bomb and the diamond lock symbol will fade in as you approach the center of the ideal release window.

The release window lasts a certain amount of time depending on your speed, altitude, range, and aspect to the target. Low and fast makes the release window super short... sometimes zero. High and slow gives the biggest release window. 350 knots is a good GBU-12 release speed. Dropping from below 500m gets tricky. Also be aware if you are dropping from high and fast the release zone is going to be a long ways away from the target. A common mistake is not giving enough lead.

Best way to practice is to use a dummy laser target from an addon and fly over the target several times at many different speeds and altitudes.

This is my experimental data: http://www.squick.org/ffa/bin/Harrier_Test_Data.pdf

[evilnate 0]

This is the way I like to bomb without the help of a designator. It would be nice if they included a CCIP pipper as a mode, but oh well.

[subs17 9]

CCIP sort of defeats the purpose of using a GBU its more inaccurate and should only really be used as a last resort for a GBU. Iron bombs and cluster bombs CCIP is good for attacking tgts WVR.

[Pulverizer 1]

In real life, GBUs are released in CCRP or CCIP to get them to the zone where they'll have enough energy to actually reach the target. Those little fins on a huge bomb can do only so much to alter its path.

In the game, you can see a locking hud marker when the bomb has a chance to reach the target though so in that sense it would be useless.

[subs17 9]

IRL its CCRP for the GBU, if they use CCIP then you are not going to be painting the tgt with the laser as you will either be too low or diving to drop the bomb. With CCRP you are either locking the tgt with A/G radar and then slewing the TDC onto the point of which you are intending to hit or you are using grid coordinates and locking that position. I think the Sniper pod is the best tool for dropping GBUs as its got a good zoom for viewing the tgt. The Russian aircraft like the SU25T can lock the tgt using the optical sight and use autopilot to release the bomb in CCRP. Another thing about CCIP is its a visual release method inside the HUD so it defeats the purpose of carrying a GBU as normally a GBU is released at high altitude over the tgt allowing the releasing aircraft to avoid AAA/VLAAD SAMs etc. I think you would only use CCIP, DTOS or MAN if you were trying to drop it under low cloud.etc

[Pulverizer 1]

Yes, it would be a rare occassion indeed IRL but that's past the point. If they added CCIP to the game, it would still be helpful for releasing GBUs and would also act as a back-up when the guys supposed to be doing the lasing get killed. As opposed to having no computed trajectory whatsoever besides the arcadey locking diamond on the hud.

I'm somewhat surprised no one has done this for ArmA, even OFP had a simple CCIP script that worked reasonably well.

[Benoist 0]

After a lot of training i learned when to drop the bomb depending my speed and my altitude, but yes, a CCIP would be like the messiah for ArmA pilots.

[subs17 9]

Drool CCIP with iron bombs or even better CBUs no wait CBUs with SFWs.(CBU97s) Everybody on the ground owned . For the GBUs it would be better to have a CCRP line in the HUD over the tgt steerpoint and a modified AC130 sight with a laser to paint the tgt. And maybe a button to stabilise the sight and then lock.