What good is the graphite bomb for?
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I recently tried using the “Graphite” CBUs on a North Korean power plant. I dropped four of them, and I’m pretty sure the reactor and transformer stations got hit. However, when I returned to base, the damage to the plant did not seem too great, and I haven’t noticed any unusual effects. Most of the damage seemed to come from my wingman dropping JDAMs on the second reactor.
Luckily, I’m late in campaign, so I just fragged a B-2 strike to finish off the plant (that’ll teach them ). However, I’ve been wondering, is that bomb good for anything at all? IRL, it seems that it’s a kind of nonlethal weapon that can completely disable an entire power grid when used right. What do they do in BMS?
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I believe the bomb is used more for electrical disturbance rather than pure destruction. I don’t really think there are power grids modelled in BMS so the bomb would kinda be useless. When mission planing strikes like that I go for pure lethal destruction of the target.
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Yeah, I was wondering why do we even have those bombs. I guess a “story” TE designer could perhaps get some mileage out of it, but in campaign it appears to be perfectly useless.
I’m not even sure how one would go about implementing power grids in campaign. It would have an effect on morale, temporarily shut down factories (do they actually produce any replacement tanks or such in-game?) and kill lights in the cities (which would be a neat effect, TBH), but I’d imagine airfields and radar stations would have their own generators, anyway, just for that occasion. They’d have to be out of power and fuel in order to actually lose electricity.
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I know how they work IRL. I was talking about BMS. Of course, IRL getting your power killed like this is really bad for morale, and makes all sorts of difficulties for soldiers on the ground.
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Yeah, I was wondering why do we even have those bombs. I guess a “story” TE designer could perhaps get some mileage out of it, but in campaign it appears to be perfectly useless.
I’m not even sure how one would go about implementing power grids in campaign. It would have an effect on morale, temporarily shut down factories (do they actually produce any replacement tanks or such in-game?) and kill lights in the cities (which would be a neat effect, TBH), but I’d imagine airfields and radar stations would have their own generators, anyway, just for that occasion. They’d have to be out of power and fuel in order to actually lose electricity.
They were used in Balkans afaik , Allied Force campaign , (I remember the old ‘news footage’) NATO bombed the hell out of powerplant and refinery there around Sombor (north serbia., below hungary).
(This is for modders, so just fyi , explosion for cbu94 should for set to type: chemical , and powerplant should take damage from ‘chemical’ , and that should work. )
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They were used in Balkans afaik , Allied Force campaign , (I remember the old ‘news footage’) NATO bombed the hell out of powerplant and refinery there around Sombor (north serbia., below hungary).
(This is for modders, so just fyi , explosion for cbu94 should for set to type: chemical , and powerplant should take damage from ‘chemical’ , and that should work. )
If I remember right the Serbs also restored power in < 24hrs , and the allies switched to real explosives. Still - probably a useful device for soft attacks and as cover/diversive for spec-ops.
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Well, the first time they did, they dropped CBUs again. Then they switched to explosives. I suppose this might work well for when you need a quick blackout without blowing things up and potentially causing civilian deaths. They were also, supposedly, used in Iraq, though I don’t know to what effect.
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I’m not sure they would serve a huge purpose in the game. As you touched on, IRL they would be used somewhere where you wanted to temporarily shut the power/comms, etc down without totally destroying the infrastructure so it can be used later. Would be the same as destroying the end section of a bridge instead of the middle, etc. IRL, there’s plenty of scenarios that would ask for that, in Falcon, not really something that would matter.
Someone probably developed the weapon for the purpose of realism for loadout purposes, and maybe, at one time there was a plan in place to make use of it…but I’m not sure that both parts of that have ever come together. The only drawback I could currently see with that is if the AI is currently loading it as part of the frag on missions as of course they are not going to be effective.
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Yeah, in game … really not so much useful , since power is needed only for factories -> supply / fuel. … it has an effect, I mean, but… or like a boss, plain ol’ mk82… whatever rocks your boat
Would describe it more like STRATEGIC weapon, rather then TACTICAL.
IRL however, I agree, it can have greater effect, but have in mind it should be coordinated strategic strikes , on power junctions and sources, preferably ‘Key’ ones.
Since, power transfer can be re-routed , not only physically , but with just a switch from control stations, so if you hit just one … big deal, ok you’ve degraded some , but they’ll just do it form the other side,
… if any system is done with careful redundancy in mind , that’s the power and telecoms. grid. (mostly )…also , for mil. targets , they almost all have (limited?) backup power plans, diesel gens… reactors? , whatever, so radar systems should be able to operate, maybe in degraded state, not the whole time , but COMMS should be working 24/7 even if the Capital city is in total blackout
So, back on CBU94, since it’s in the game … well , use it … well not so much BANG for the buck but if it works… just for sake of it. (dunno be creative )