GBU-12 accuracy in CCIP
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a gbu-12 without a laser designating the target SHOULD be as accurate as a mk82…
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a gbu-12 without a laser designating the target SHOULD be as accurate as a mk82…
Agree. It just becomes a ‘dumb’ bomb on a ballistic trajectory.
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That might be by design. CCRP and I think DTOS trajectories are “energy excess” releases by the design of the system so they will go long without guidance at some stage. The theory is that it’s easier to steer a bomb 100m short of ballistic energetically than 100m longer. CCIP could very well be deliberately showing a “short dot” such that a dot on the target causes a bomb to go long.
Often the avionics options will have this non-ballistic trajectory able to be on or off (See A-10C Suite 3.1, OPT/BAL trajectory option).
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What causes the fins to deflect in the first place though? With the guidance system, normally it makes maximum input deflections. If it doesnt see a laser spot, does it hold the fins in the middle? Seems like it could be accurate that it is inaccurate without a laser spot.
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With the guidance system, normally it makes maximum input deflections.
Correct, it only makes full scale deflections. Because of this, they aren’t terrible accurate for small targets anyway as it pretty much sine waves it’s was to the TGT. Should it be at a peak or trough and correcting, it won’t hit exactly. So it senses it’s off, makes a full scale deflection and holds it until it passes back through the correct path.
But that’s with guidance.
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The MAU control head has a time delay on release until it looks for the laser. Then the laser seeker looks for the pattern (twice to verify I think, PRF sequence is pretty fast). And then the fins are moved according to which quadrant the laser is seen in.
First fin movement is when laser is verified correct code and depending on sensor quadrant. If no valid laser detected it should keep fins neutral. Once it deflects though it is never fins neutral again.
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As long as there is no laser spot acquired the bomb will fall ballisticly. I believe it is slightly less accurate than a pure “clean” MK82 low drag though.
This is why you can opt to delayed lase, the first part of the flight it falls along its ballistic trajectory which is then refined by lasing for the latter stages of the bomb’s fall.
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IIRC, ballistic GBU-12 are less accurate than MK82 without guidance kit. However, with respect to this video, it seems like there is no reason not to drop them danger close without laser guidance in zero visibility:
Seems accurate enough …
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Paveway II and III fly further due to added lift and stability due to their aerodynamic properties. As reported by the OP, currently their predicted impact point does not correlate with the indicated position of the CCIP piper in the HUD. In contrast, keep in mind that currently the predicted impact point of MK82 (or any other General Purpose bomb for that matter) correlates too perfectly with the indicated position of the CCIP piper in the HUD. So rather than expecting the GP behavior/accuracy with CCIP, hopefully, in the future we’ll see more dynamics effect all falling bombs.
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a gbu-12 without a laser designating the target SHOULD be as accurate as a mk82…
The A-10C in DCS and the F/A-18E by VRS for FSX both feature less accurate GBUs when dropped in CCIP.;)
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I just tried CCIP GBU-12 (no laser of course) and it’s just as accurate as any dumb bomb as far as I can tell. If it provides “energy excess” it doesn’t in CCIP or CCIP/D.