6. Laser Guided Bombs
For these bombs I recommend to use the following MFD setups:
FCR - WPN - FLIR/TFR for MFD1
HSD - SMS - TGP for MFD2
Laser Guided Bombs (LGB or GBU) are very precise. They have steering vanes that guide the bomb to the target. The target has to be lased with a laser and the bomb will fly itself towards the laser spot. Lasing targets can be done by ground troops in the area and/or the F-16's targeting pod (TGP display). The F-16 can lase the target either in auto mode or in manual mode:
In auto mode, you will have to check if the laser timer is greater than zero seconds (e.g. 5-10s is a realistic value) in the Data Entry Display or DED. To access the laser menu press the LIST button on the Integrated Control Panel or ICP, then hit the 0 key (Miscellaneous) and then the 5 key (Laser). Before the bomb impacts, the F-16's laser pod will start lasing the target for the number of seconds entered in the DED, allowing the bomb to make final adjustments.
In manual mode you will have to lase the target yourself until weapon impact by holding the joystick trigger button to the first detent (don't push all the way through!).
When the laser fires, you will see a flashing L indicator on the TGP display. You can also see a counter of the remaining bomb flight time. Do not forget to set the laser arm switch to arm!
Auto lasing:
- Press backspace to enter AG master mode and to cycle through the available AG stores until you see GBU in the top right corner.
- On the FCR radar on the left MFD: designate the target (TMS-UP button). You can switch between zoom levels with the pinky switch
- The TGP display on the right MFD will display "NOT SOI". To make it the SOI you must press joystick button DMS-down. Now a green box surrounds the entire TGP display to tell you it's the active sensor. You can not yet slew the cursor.
- Press TMS-UP again to put the TGP in area mode after which you can slew the cursor over the target with the cursor enable button on the throttle.
- For fixed targets you can stay in area mode and follow CCRP steering info the normal way and release the bombs as described in CCRP chapter.
- For moving targets you have to go into point mode by pressing TMS-UP again. The cursors will follow the target. Use CCRP steering info until bomb release.
- Preferably you need to fly over the target so that the laser pod keeps seeing the target. Check that the laser timer starts flashing until bomb impact.
Manual:
Same as with auto except that you have to keep an eye on the time to impact and then hold the joystick trigger button to the first detent to actively lase the target. Manual lasing overrides auto lasing.
Back to top7. High speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM)/AGM-88
Air to Ground (AG) missile that homes in on radar emitting sources such as a SAM site. Enter AG master mode and cycle through your weapon stores in the SMS page with the backspace key until you see AGM88 at the top right. Then select the Harm Attack Display (HAD) on one of the MFDs by pressing OSB13 twice which takes you to the main MFD menu where you can select any of the modes. Click the OSB button corresponding to the HAD entry. On the HAD display you will see all the threat emitters on the ground if there are any.
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- Green=inactive |
You can press OSB3 or the pinky switch on the joystick to cycle between different zoom levels (NORM, EXP, EXP2). Move the cursor switch on the throttle to slew the cursors over a threat symbol on the HAD and then press the designate button (TMS-UP on joystick) to lock onto the ground radar (a white box will appear around the symbol). When in range(green circle in the HUD starts to flash), press the pickle button and hold it for one sec to fire missile. "MAGNUM!". Now you can concentrate on another target since the HARM is a "fire and forget" weapon. You can also switch to an external view of your missile to see it impact with the SAM site. To do this:
-
press SHIFT+7 (view weapon) and then press 9 (view chase) to see the weapon from behind which gives a better view of the area the missile is flying to, or
- press SHIFT+7 (view weapon) and then press 0 (orbit view) to be able to pan around with the joystick hat button, or
- press SHIFT+7 (view weapon) and then press the key just below ESC and left of key 1 for a top-down satellite view, or
- press SHIFT+7 (view weapon) and then press SHIFT+9 (fly by view)
- you can combine all these views with the L key to zoom the view in and out.
Note: no more HARM missile means no more info on the HAD since the display comes from the weapon's on board sensors.
8. BLU-107 Durandal anti-runway bomb
The BLU-107 Durandal bomb is a bomb that must be dropped at very low altitude (+/-100ft) and high speed +/-500KTS) to destroy a runway. When the bomb comes off the rail, it immediately falls behind your plane due to a parachute attached to it which slows it down. Once it points down towards the runway, the rocket engine fires up and the bomb drills itself into the hard concrete of the runway to explode underneath the surface, leaving a huge crater.
Since these bombs are dropped at very low altitude, select a low arming delay (AD) in the SMS CNTL page (on the MFD select SMS page with the stores, hit backspace until durandal bombs are selected, press CNTL at the top right to go to the SMS control page and then hit C1 at the top left. Then set AD to for instance 0,2. This means it will take one fifth of a second for the bomb to become armed as soon as it comes off the wing. Also set the ripple spacing to a value so that you will drill holes in the runway at an equal distance, covering the entire runway. This will depend on the number of durandals you have so also set ripple quantity in the same screen. The max ripple spacing you can enter is 999ft so 6 bombs x 999ft gives 6000ft of runway destroyed by 6 holes that are each 999 ft apart.
You will need to drop the bombs visually in CCIP delivery mode. The pipper in the HUD will tell you where the first bomb will hit when you press the pickle button on the joystick. In other words, fly in the runway axis until the pipper is over the beginning of the runway threshold and then pickle. Maintain steady flight and keep the pipper overhead the runway centreline. All bombs will come off one after eachother at the specified ripple spacing (That is, if you did't forget to change the ripple quantity from 1 to for instance 6!) See also my video on the Open Falcon main page
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