Computed pop-up attacks: when, where, how, and why?
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Pop-up attacks are used against fixed targets when it is determined that low altitude ingress and short duration exposure are the critical factors in maximizing survivability. When to use various tactical tools is the $1M question. Personally I would favor such a technique in a long range penetration type mission where local and/or brief superiority cannot be achieved. FLOT or large package work it’s usually better to be higher, slower, and more forceful. Unfortunately I feel that the popup’s primary strength, surprise against air defense reaction time is underrepresented in BMS.
The “bump” to either deliver level or a Maverick is a legitimate type of popup attack. The usual purpose of the extended climb is to allow maneuvering room for a dive release (often CCIP) to maximize accuracy. If your selected weapon or desired accuracy doesn’t require a diving or higher height delivery, there’s no need.
(V)IP and (V)RP depends on if your steerpoint is the target or not. A large motivation for selecting and utilizing one more or the other is the value in updating aircraft position data prior to an attack to counter accumulated INS drift. Because of GPS integration the need for position updates is reduced. Usually in Falcon you want to use VRP since steer will be target 99%.
For all computed pop ups I would run the data through WDP. There I enter ingress speed, alt, G, turn, and offset leg length and the calculator spits out the numbers. As with all weapon release profiles it’s proper to find the best release parameters and work backwards.
The “sighting rotary” is selecting which sub-point is your DMPI for attack/CCRP cues. Despite the common use of RP/PUP/OA1/OA2 for maneuvers they are just simple tools in your toolbox and it’s possible to deliver weapons to any of them. It’s perfectly acceptable to bomb OA2. The “WDP way” is for I/RP and PUP to form your baseline pre-pop axis. The goal is to fly through I/RP aimed at PUP. Passing the PUP you point at OA1 (if that requires a change of azimuth depends on the profile). Passing OA1 follow the attack cues to aim at target. OA2 can be placed below OA1 vertically at the PUP elevation or at the calculated AOD for the post-pulldown dive. As always this is one use of generic tools and not the only way, but it is a good one.
Generally switch to CCIP for increased accuracy only once you have aligned on the final attack heading, tally’d the target, and no longer need the attack cues.
Good documentation can be found here: http://www.weapondeliveryplanner.nl/download/index.html especially “Manual WDP version 2.0”
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I would advice reading the manual of wdp. It describes the popup
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Computed pop-up attacks: when, where, how, and why?
http://www.weapondeliveryplanner.nl
IIRC, There are manuals explaining almost everything about pop up attack.
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Hehe, reading the WDP manual is a FANTASTIC idea - it looks like it goes into ALL the gory details of pop-ups. I thought I had looked at the WDP manual, but all I looked at was “Working with the DTC” and the NavOffsets section, which obviously didn’t give me the information I was looking for.
In addition to Fred’s helpful post, I’ll devour this material and I am confident that I will be competent at computed pop-up attacks in no time. Thanks all!
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So, Ive noted something interesting about the offset aimpoints and VRP/VIP sighting modes. All of these markers have a set altitude, which can be changed in the pit via the upfront controls. Interestingly, these altitudes are all AGL, rather than AMSL. Seems like a bit of an oversight? Is the DTS meant to be implemented in the future?
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I don’t think they are AGL or ASL but relative to the height of the referenced steerpoint? So steerpoint is elevation 500’ and OA1 is +200’ it is 700’ ASL by addition. At least that’s how it should be if these symbols were designed to fly airshows around the target area.
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I don’t think they are AGL or ASL but relative to the height of the referenced steerpoint? So steerpoint is elevation 500’ and OA1 is +200’ it is 700’ ASL by addition. At least that’s how it should be if these symbols were designed to fly airshows around the target area.
I’ll test this again and report my findings.
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Unfortunately, steerpoint elev in DED is not correctly implemented. The steepoint elev in DEST page should be the ground elevation at steerpoint (not the planned flight level) and MCC/FCC should use this elevation to compute OA VIP VRP elevation …
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you don’t need to compute popups
all you need is a profile with the following:
- action point (distance)
- climb angle
- pull down altitude (AGL)
- Apex altitude (AGL)
- PRA= Planned Release Altitude (AGL)
- MRA= Minimum Release Altitude (AGL)
http://www.viperdrivers.org/forum/blog.php
Make a few profiles on paper for some typical profiles and use them whenever convenient
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Unfortunately, steerpoint elev in DED is not correctly implemented. The steepoint elev in DEST page should be the ground elevation at steerpoint (not the planned flight level) and MCC/FCC should use this elevation to compute OA VIP VRP elevation …
This was what I thought was the case.
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I’ll test this again and report my findings.
I think about it again and if it says “elevation” then it should be altitude. If it was a vertical offset from steerpoint it would use language like that. AGL makes no sense at all.