LGB Loft from 500 feet up 40°, TR433_11

[jc1]

I can come in at 500 feet, 500 knots, Lift up to 40° and release GBU-12. So far OK. Then I turn left 90° and descend. That is all the advice I get from the training lesson, TR433_11, LGB. But no matter how I try to vary the left turn and descent, I always wind up masking the target crane. Can somebody put a video to show how it’s done?

[Stevie]

You need to continue your climb to, and hold, a “tactical” altitude. If you descend too far and/or too fast you are going to occlude either the TGP sightline or the target, as you are finding out. It’s a timing/geometry exercise…just have to figure it out.

But I probably also wouldn’t turn left 90…40 sounds better to me…experiment.

[Frederf]

Self-lasing my own lofted LGB doesn’t sound like a smart idea. In reality you’d have someone else do standoff lasing for you (wingman, ground team) for a lofted delivery. The training manual specifically indicates not to do an lofted delivery (p100, para. 2). OK, the second bomb is a lofted delivery this will be interesting…

First thing I’d recommend is consider 30-35° to be the maximum loft angle to shoot for. The PUP-to-target range between a 35 degree and a 40 degree release result is super tiny. On a graph of PUP distance to angle at release the angle curve would shoot up sharply after 30-35. When you pull up you want to apply 4G to the jet and have the bomb come off at 4G. You absolutely don’t want to unload and “climb the escalator” waiting for release. If you aren’t getting release while holding the 4G load, do it closer.

Immediately after release you have some seconds to reposition in order to lase. You don’t have to keep the TGP ready to lase for the entire TOF, just the end ~10s or so. Use the difference between the lase time and the TOF to make a radial maneuver to bunt your forward progress. For example on release unload quickly, roll ~AOB 130 and pull to a 90 degree heading change, then again parallel to your release track. If TOF is 30s and lase is 10s that gives you 10s to make the first turn and 10s to make the second. It’s not critical to get your TGP exactly on the target at lase time, just close and uninhibited. Refine as needed during the lase until impact.

[Raptor]

Start 500 feet, 540 knots, tgp looking on the target (or general target area if it is masked), popup up to 33° and release the GBU (distance to target should be 4~5.5nm approx), chaff/flares, then turn left 90°~135°, idle throttle, 10° dive, chaff/flares, recenter the target in tgp and tms-up. If everything is ok in speeds, distances etc at this time the bomb will need ~20sec to hit the target, thus you have ~10sec to acquire and successfully lase the target. Failure to perform these actions quickly mean that the bomb will not follow the laser guidance and go ballistic iron, most probably bypassing the target area.

Your main concern at this point is not to go back down to 500ft or less, but to lase the target. Since you selected this weapon and delivery method, and considering that you will be in a ~5nm minimum radius away from the target, it is assumed that you’ll be soon clear of any AAA or short sam engagement envelops that might come up from nowhere, if these are not already destroyed by other sead assets (not referring to the training mission specifically).

It works great, it is in my intentions in future to release a series of training videos of advanced deliveries as we use them internally as in real.

[SOF108]

Hello
I’ve been try to use this kind of delivery also and I find out some good info. in the Docs folder.
1. the F-16 COMBAT AIRCRAFT FUNDAMENTALS - Multi-Command Handbook 11-F16 Vol5 Pages 276 - 278
2. the Basic Employment Manual F-16C Pages 506 - 512.
Both describing the LGB-LOFT delivery method.

After I read those manuals I was able to try it by myself.
You can find the result here:

1st bomb release condition:
initial alt. before pull up: 100 ft [AGL]
pull up speed: 560 knots [CAS]
distance from TGT at the pull: 6 nm
release angle: 30 deg
release alt: 1000 ft [AGL]
after the bomb released: I started a gentle left turn (40deg) put the throttle in idle position and climb to 6000 ft [AGL] and lock the TGT with the TGP

2nd bomb release condition:
initial alt. before pull up: 92 ft [AGL]
pull up speed: 567 knots [CAS]
distance from TGT at the pull: 6.2 nm
release angle: 34 deg
release alt: 1050 ft [AGL]
after the bomb released: I started a gentle left turn (40deg) put the throttle in idle position and climb to 6000 ft [AGL] and lock the TGT with the TGP

As you can see this kind of delivery method won’t work in heavy protected area because you may end the maneuver at high alt (6K ft AGL).