A blue player has 2x LR-SEAD and 4x GP loadout F/A-18D's, and 1x EA-6B and is planning on striking a an isolated Coastal Defense Bty defended by a lone SAM Bty.

 

Is it best to keep all five aircraft as one group or are all of the unique attributes of these aircraft types/loadouts aggregated when employed as one group?

 

My intent would be for the EA-6B to jam enemy radar, the SEAD to suppress the SAM, while the GP's hit the coastal defense bty.

 

Thanks,

Hi Pete. Great question.

 

You might recall that with the old ECM model, you had to group your strikers and/or escorts with an electronic warfare platform (eg. the EA-6B Prowler or EF-111 Raven) in order to gain benefit from the jamming. The resulting general effect was to reduce the detection range of an enemy radar against your particular group.

 

I think you will find this to have changed with the new ECM model.

 

You don't need to group your strikers or escorts with the EW platform. As long as your jammer (eg. EA-6B) is nearby and has its sensors energized, you will benefit from the jamming effect. (Ideally, I would like the code to permit me to energize the jammers separately from the other sensors, but this is a minor point).

 

Now, that said, there may be a side benefit to grouping your strikers, escorts and jammers together while enroute to a target. The principal benefit, as I see it, is that the group will travel at the same speed (thereby reducing time over target calculation problems) and appear as a single symbol, improving "clickology" . Once you reach your IP, in the area of the target, you can ungroup or separate the various aircraft again. For example, split off the SEAD aircraft to blast the radars while the strikers (carrying the heavy stuff, like JDAM) follow behind. All the while, your Prowler can orbit at a safe distance, jamming the krap out of the enemy radars. I certainly wouldn't advocate sending the Prowler (or even the SEAD platforms, if you can avoid it) into harm's way (ie. close to the target) with the other strikers.

 

When the strike is complete, you can group all of them together again for the transit home if you like.

 

These kind of tactics posts/discussions are great stuff. Keep em coming.

Along the same lines, I've read somewhere on these boards that one needs to really micromanage their air assets to effectively coordinate a multi-axis Time On Target strike.

 

Can someone elaborate. I am at the point where I want to coordinate the strikes, but run into issues like planes in a group firing off their longer ranged stand-off weapons while others in the group have shorter range weapons that turn away upon the launch of the stand-off's. Also, there are speed difference issues between the stand-off weapons and other-group planes that need to close with the target to drop their JDAMs or other like-weapons.

 

Is the bearing/distance calculator used often to assist in strike planning? Do those players who "micromanage" their assets put pen to paper when planning or are you at that point where you can plan-on-the-fly?

 

 

Thanks

OK, to put it another way. Is it possible to have the AI perform the actions you just described or is that beyond its limits? Perhaps I am not quite as familiar with the Scenario Editor as I should be.

I am at the point where I want to coordinate the strikes, but run into issues like planes in a group firing off their longer ranged stand-off weapons while others in the group have shorter range weapons that turn away upon the launch of the stand-off's.

 

Yes, if you have aircraft in the same group with different types of loadouts and weapons, then they will want to engage the target at different ranges. You will need to have them in separate groups at this time (which I usually do), or else really micro-manage them. Keeping them in the group will mean that those aircraft that just expended their standoff weapons will have to close the distance alongside those aircraft with the shorter ranged stuff, and thus unnecessarily put themselves in harms' way.

 

Also, there are speed difference issues between the stand-off weapons and other-group planes that need to close with the target to drop their JDAMs or other like-weapons.

Yeah. Its unpleasant to launch a cruise missile that then travels at a slower speed than your launching aircraft. You really need to micro manage at this point. Rather than just ordering a group to attack, and trusting them to do the rest (and potentially running into the problems you've described above), I usually set a navigation course that brings my aircraft within range of their weapons and micro-manage.

 

Is the bearing/distance calculator used often to assist in strike planning?

 

Occasionally, I will use it to achieve simultaneous time over target strikes when flying several groups from different directions against the same target(s).

 

Do those players who "micromanage" their assets put pen to paper when planning or are you at that point where you can plan-on-the-fly?

 

On the fly.

OK, to put it another way.  Is it possible to have the AI perform the actions you just described or is that beyond its limits?  Perhaps I am not quite as familiar with the Scenario Editor as I should be.

No, the AI will not perform this kind of micro management of your own assets. Unless, of course, you set up separate groups; calculate navigational waypoints that will achieve proper time on target; etc. If you want to do this, you might need the pen and paper.

Well actually I was wondering if the AI opponant could do it (I should have been more clear on this), but I believe you answered my question all the same. That being that it is not possible for the AI to perform excessively complex actions.

 

So the AI opponant would need the separate groups and a lot of planning to execute such a precise attack, or simply have them launch as one group.

 

Looks like I'll be figuring a lot of airspeeds and times to target when I start building actual scenarios.

Yeah, you're right. I did misunderstand. In any event, the enemy AI can do a lot of nasty stuff that I wouldn't venture to try and explain. It doesn't combine groups, afaik, but I could be wrong.

Do multiple EA-6B's, or their equivelent, in a group have a significantly higher jamming power or is simply one EA-6B going to provide the most jamming effect for a stike group(s)?

 

Thanks as always,

 

Pete

To recap our discussion on IRC for the benefit of those who weren't there, Tony says that two Prowlers are better than one, but three aren't better than two. Basically, with two Prowlers, their jamming systems work to mask each other.