JSOW attack heading
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Yes - ideally you’d like to hit them in the face or the rear, but probably prefer to hit them in the backside because a tank’s armor is heaviest in the front. It’s also not unreasonable to split the diff and quarter to the stern because all you really need do to halt a tank is blow a track off of it.
Your numbers look reasonable, but you’re also right about the diagrams you can’t find…and I doubt you will.
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http://www.clusterconvention.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/A-Guide-to-Cluster-Munitions.pdf is something I found. On p.31 it talks about strike pattern and mentions CBU fallowing on ballistic trajectory (such as JSOW A) with have an elliptical footprint. Also, if you look at the diagram on p.196 of BMS Dash 34 it shows elliptical footprints
So, my friends, the question becomes what’s best in BMS? Let’s say you have an armored column going 360 to 180. Logically, you’d want a tandem drop with att. az. of either 360 or 180, right? And, as it usually seems I’m attacking from SW to SE I generally use 360.
The other 2 variables are burst altitude and impact spacing. With BA I go 500 ft for armor, and 750-1000 for SAM sites. Are those good values to use? IS is the other variable . I generally use 200 ft., but have no idea if that’s the best. I’ve never been able to find a chart showing burst height vs. footprint.Are the footprints elliptical though? Since tests of others have indicated that the footprints are circular.
Hope the BMS devs would be able to answer this.
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In other words, does Gusy’s test remain accurate? Is BA the only factor than affects the damage area of the cluster munitions, or are there other factors as well?
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Yes - ideally you’d like to hit them in the face or the rear, but probably prefer to hit them in the backside because a tank’s armor is heaviest in the front. It’s also not unreasonable to split the diff and quarter to the stern because all you really need do to halt a tank is blow a track off of it.
Your numbers look reasonable, but you’re also right about the diagrams you can’t find…and I doubt you will.
What you’re saying certainly makes sense, but that raises another variable. Namely, what about attack range? Namely,as in our aforementioned example of approaching a 360 to 180 column from the SW to SE, would you need to launch closer to target? I generally try for “mid-staple” launch. Would that leave JSOW enough energy to loop around for a rear quarter or from the rear shot? Or even more to the point ,what if you did launch from max range?
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What you’re saying certainly makes sense, but that raises another variable. Namely, what about attack range? Namely,as in our aforementioned example of approaching a 360 to 180 column from the SW to SE, would you need to launch closer to target? I generally try for “mid-staple” launch. Would that leave JSOW enough energy to loop around for a rear quarter or from the rear shot? Or even more to the point ,what if you did launch from max range?
Isn’t there an ‘in range’ cue that is active whenever you are within a range, heading, alt, speed, etc., that will allow the JSOW to achieve the attack parameters you’ve set? Or is that only with a JDAM or WCMD?
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Isn’t there an ‘in range’ cue that is active whenever you are within a range, heading, alt, speed, etc., that will allow the JSOW to achieve the attack parameters you’ve set? Or is that only with a JDAM or WCMD?
Good Day, A_B. When I get home today I’ll be testing what we’ve been talking about here. I haven’t been trying to loop them around. But, if memory serves you get the “JZIZ” notice at the top of the “staple”. After that, to be honest, I’m just looking for the middle of the staple.
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What you’re saying certainly makes sense, but that raises another variable. Namely, what about attack range? Namely,as in our aforementioned example of approaching a 360 to 180 column from the SW to SE, would you need to launch closer to target? I generally try for “mid-staple” launch. Would that leave JSOW enough energy to loop around for a rear quarter or from the rear shot? Or even more to the point ,what if you did launch from max range?
A JSOW will only make course corrections on a mostly direct line to the target, unless you do some pre-planning. And even then, I don’t really know how the F-16 has them mech’d so caveat-emptor.
What I do know is that yes, the higher you launch the more energy the weapon has…but even so, it doesn’t have enough energy for re-attack. You should get some sort of IN RNG cuing. I’ll have to RTFM. I know some stuff about JSOW on other platforms, haven’t studied the F-16. But you’re still looking for an effective bomblet density on target and that depends on burst height above target.
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In other words, does Gusy’s test remain accurate? Is BA the only factor than affects the damage area of the cluster munitions, or are there other factors as well?
Nice test, results don’t look reasonable since there is little to no change in probabilty of kill with bomblet density - Burst Height.
Yes - it’s all about bomblet density on the intended target…seeing as we know that not all of the bomblets are going to impact any one target with any area weapon.
Seems to me that cluster munitions could be modeled better all around.
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Good Day, A_B. When I get home today I’ll be testing what we’ve been talking about here. I haven’t been trying to loop them around. But, if memory serves you get the “JZIZ” notice at the top of the “staple”. After that, to be honest, I’m just looking for the middle of the staple.
If you have the JZIZ (X X In Zone) that should indicate that the ‘flying’ munition can meet the parameters you have set. If you’re in range but you don’t have the ‘in zone’ cue that doesn’t necessarily mean your weapon can’t reach the target, but that it can’t reach the target AND fly the parameters you’ve requested.
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Yes - ideally you’d like to hit them in the face or the rear, but probably prefer to hit them in the backside because a tank’s armor is heaviest in the front.
I don’t think that’d make much of a difference for cluster munitions. Tanks are armored to resist direct fire weapons, like RPG’s or tank cannons. Looking down on the tank, the armor is fairly uniform, and very thin compared to front or sides. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but any cluster bomb should be effective from any attack direction. The bomblets would have to be striking at a very shallow angle to the Earth’s surface for frontal armor to come into play. I’d be more concerned with ensuring the bomblets are dispersed in a pattern that ensures saturation over the whole armored formation.