Am I re-inventing the wheel? (Boresighting Mavs)
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I’ve always avoided using Mavericks because of the tedious boresighting process. My main issue was, once airborne, finding a suitable point of interest at a suitable distance that gives me the ability and time to boresight both racks.
Today, I got an idea and tried it. Now I’m a Maverick fan. If I’ve re-invented the wheel, let me know, because I’ve never seen or read an example of this technique:
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In the 2D Map, recon a city located ~30-40 miles away from your takeoff location and find a unique building . There will sometimes be one around your predesignated steerpoint 2 (which is very useful because it helps you stay on briefed flight path/timeline).
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Precision steerpoint that building as steerpoint 99 in your recon screen.
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When you get into your 3D pit, immediately switch your Master Arm to Sim, and power up your mavs. By the time you get into the air, they should be ready.
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As soon as you are airborne, switch left MFD to WPN and right MFD to TGP/SOI. Switch to steerpoint 99 and lock on to the unique building with your Targeting Pod as soon as you are able. Switch your auto-pilot on and stabilize around 275-300knots. Now you can go heads down without worry.
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On your left MFD WPN display, expand your FOV, find that unique building, cursor to it, TMS up and boresight when you can. Switch racks and repeat.
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When finished, turn the Mavs back off, switch Master Arm to safe, resume your briefed steerpoint, and put the MFDs back to default NAV mode displays.
The point of the above is to have a suitable boresight feature identified, steerpointed, and capable of instant finding/locking before you even leave the 2D map.
If this process is already known/recommended, I apologize for not being able to find it on the forum or in the docs. Just offering a technique that worked really well for me this evening.
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This is one of the major reasons for preferring laser MAV over IR MAV - you don’t need to boresight an LMAV.
…and that’s just ONE reason.
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@Stevie I like the AGM-65 boresight method, and i use it regularly.
I use my homebase (STPT 1) as my -65 boresighting target.
I allways choose a specific building on this base as the aligning point.After taking off i go 30 nm from base, then turn toward the base, do the boresigtning process, and continue with my mission, ready to engage the missiles .
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@SoBad Similar to what I do. I usually double check the success of the boresight procedure, at the end, by switching stations to ensure both are on the same target.
And one mustn’t forget to cancel cursor slews as part of the process.
Very quick once practised. -
@danster said in Am I re-inventing the wheel? (Boresighting Mavs):
And one mustn’t forget to cancel cursor slews as part of the process.
This is very important !
After u do that, move the tgp “box” and see if the -65 moves accordingly (check it on both stations). -
@regev said in Am I re-inventing the wheel? (Boresighting Mavs):
@Stevie I like the AGM-65 boresight method, and i use it regularly.
I use my homebase (STPT 1) as my -65 boresighting target.
I allways choose a specific building on this base as the aligning point.After taking off i go 30 nm from base, then turn toward the base, do the boresigtning process, and continue with my mission, ready to engage the missiles .
Agree. If carrying MAVs I always set STPT1 to be 30-50 nm out and a place with buildings for that very reason. That way I can lock her into STRG SEL /ATT Hold autopilot and fully concentrate on the boresight procedure…
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There’s a nice video that illustrates your process perfectly
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@CriticalMass said in Am I re-inventing the wheel? (Boresighting Mavs):
There’s a nice video that illustrates your process perfectly
I’ve seen your video. The critical difference, and the whole point of my post, is locating and steerpointing the reference building BEFORE you enter the 3D pit, so you spend ZERO time in pit looking for a building to use.
@danster said in Am I re-inventing the wheel? (Boresighting Mavs):
And one mustn’t forget to cancel cursor slews as part of the process.
If you use my method, there is no cursor slew to cancel.
@regev said in Am I re-inventing the wheel? (Boresighting Mavs):
I use my homebase (STPT 1) as my -65 boresighting target.
I allways choose a specific building on this base as the aligning point.
After taking off i go 30 nm from base, then turn toward the base, do the boresigtning process, and continue with my mission, ready to engage the missiles .If you’re part of a multi-flight package, staying on the flightpath and timeline could be problematic using your method. If you create a PPT steerpoint near the briefed flight path, you avoid the potential issue of using your method.
I can see in the replies that a lot of people have their own favorite method. I’m just pointing out the advantages of predesignating a ‘Steerpoint 99’ reference point near your briefed flight path in the 2D Map. It completely eliminates the time you otherwise spend trying to quickly find a reference point in flight, and keeps you on your flight path and timeline.
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Seems smart. I’ve never thought to do a precision-stpt … but I’ve defintely dropped a PPT or moved a navigation-stpt on/close to a city or airbase, once or twice.
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@SoBad Sounds good. I do the same on land attack missions off the Boat, unless I go Feet Dry in enemy territory. As that doesn’t seem to be the best time to be heads down , I do as regev said. Have the radar/tgp set and power the Mavs immediately after takeoff. Climb outbound to 12K or so depending on clouds, turn back to the Boat, boresight, and go
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@regev - Yeah, that sounds like something I used to do back in my younger days when I was working with RL IMAV on RL Night Attack Harrier…except that I think we had spots on our airfield that we could use for boresighting prior to takeoff - should think you could also find something similar, like a runway distance board, end lights, the tower, etc. or something. Farther away the better, but doesn’t have to be at “infinity”, really.
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@Stevie said in Am I re-inventing the wheel? (Boresighting Mavs):
This is one of the major reasons for preferring laser MAV over IR MAV - you don’t need to boresight an LMAV.
…and that’s just ONE reason.
Sure, but IR Rifles are fire and forget. A major tactical advantage.
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@Mower - you’d like to think that, but that’s not as important/relevant as actually hitting the target, given my experience with firing RL ones - most of that experience is with MAVF, and the seekers do act differently between MAVF and MAVG, but most of the same operational caveats apply to both.
Real trick is getting close enough to employ, and then get away - you can stand off farther if you buddy lase, but the real issue is time of day (thermal crossover)/thermal contrast and the heat sig of what you are shooting at - an IMAV may bite off on more than it can chew, an LMAV won’t/can’t. Of the two, I prefer the laser.
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@SoBad Good technique. I do something similar. In 2d map I’ll move a waypoint over a city. After a while you will need only 5 to 10 miles to boresight.
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@Stevie , when you use laser Mavs in BMS, are you (or another member of your flight) usually buddy-lasing them?
I created a variation of the BMS Mav training mission (the easier of the two) with laser Mavs instead of E-O Mavs, so I could practice with them.
In my experience, Mavs are so slow it’s hard for me to lase the target all the way to impact. It seems like I nearly outrun the missiles, even when I’m trying to stay at an airspeed of around 350 knots. Even when I try to turn somewhat away from a straight-line path towards the target, to reduce my closure rate, I still tend to have masking issues. I can do it sometimes, but I haven’t found a really good, consistent way to self-lase a Mav all the way to a target.
I guess I was just wondering if you’ve developed a good technique in BMS for self-lasing a laser Mav all the way to a target.
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I find boresighting to be so quick that I don’t plan anything. Throw the radar into SP, find a town or anything 10-20 miles out, throw down the pseudo, find something on TGP. TGP area. Missile track 1, step, missile track 2. TGP point track. BSGT 2, step, BSGT 1. Back into MO.
What’s annoying if there’s a cloud deck or somehow not anything at hand to calibrate to the latter is rare.
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@Mylonite470 - I don’t use LMAV in BMS, chiefly because I know how RL ones work and the BMS LMAV model is presently very immature. I’m waiting for model improvements (and to finish my cockpit project) before I really get into it.
However - if I were using them I would certainly be inclined to do both buddy and self lasing, remembering that one can only buddy lase in MP…or at least, that would be my preferred scenario for doing buddy lasing. What you need to do really depends on the tactical situation, and what you are shooting at.
Yes - you are correct in that AGM-65 Series missiles are very slow (are glide bombs, really), and it’s very easy for a fast jet like a Viper or Hornet to out-fly them and defeat their own-ship laser. This wasn’t an issue for the LMAVs I participated in firing from RL Harriers in that we always used a mule…I never got to shoot one using a Litening pod, but that would be really good combination for it…
…so what I came up with (in RL) with a fast Attack jet was to employ a climbing, decelerating turn to help in: a) decreasing the rate of downrange travel, and b) avoid small arms fire, frag, and terrain. The direction of turn depends on which side of the jet your laser is mounted on, and just how prone to masking your laser becomes when you put a wing down on that side.
Your LMAV Training Mission is just what you need - good work! Just have to play with the geometry until you get something that works - the RL shot I designed worked, but I had to work with my pilot pretty hard to show him that he could out-fly the missile before we actually fired one; point being - practice. But once you figure out what is going on the geometry becomes sort of instinctual. Another key is to bear in mind that you don’t want to be as fast as you might be fighting up and away or with other A/G ords.
I’ve since had the chance to perform lots LMAV shots myself in RL Training sims, and I can make it work just about every shot - even if I’m doing the targeting as WSO and directing my pilot how to fly in order to maintain the laser energy on target.
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Thanks heaps, @Stevie !
I like your idea of a climbing, decelerating turn. With the TGP being mounted on the right chin station in my training mission, I think I will start experimenting with firing at a somewhat higher airspeed than I’d been doing, and instead of making a level turn to the left, try climbing while turning, and pulling the power back a little.
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@Mylonite470 - now yer getting the picture!