After playing the dev update i was looking at the new guided munitions noticed china is the only one to receive these new weapons. I figured i would start a discussion on the NATO equivalent. For NATO the AGM - 154 JSOW could be a great addition. It could be put on the jas39, f18s, f15E, f16 block 40,50, and 60.
There where also armor pentation models of the JSOW which could be used against ships.
Btw im not asking for these to come this update, these new Chinese bombs open the door to having more munitions this is just one of the many that could come.
I think the key difference is the glide bomb just targets and hits a static GPS target.
The AGM-154 appears to employ an IR seeker during the terminal phase to guide the weapon onto target, meaning it should in theory be able to hit a moving targeting (well… somewhat minimally moving target, but moving target nonetheless)
The issue with the JSOW & (JDAM-ER) is that the variants available to airframes (that are in game) either aren’t modeled ( as the USAF only procured the AGM-154A, and JDAM-ER kits in service are used with Quickstrike warheads exclusively, at least for now) as they deploy submunitions, or are AP bombs optimized for attacking Surface ships.
Well there’s still the GBU-39 (SDB-I) , -39A(Laser-SDB) and -53(SDB-II), but then they come quad mounted in the BRU-61/A per station (and that the AGM-187A is the better option anyway).
To some degree, as the penetration distance required to be employed is reduced though with a glide ratio of about 2.5~3, and being unpowered Basic JDAMs won’t go that far downrange from low altitude (especially if compared against later Paveways, which are supposed to loft, and have GPS /INS options), from a level release. So prevents LO-LO-LO Nape of Earth tactics, So it’s not entirely without risk or useful on all maps / target permutations.
I think the most balanced version we could see now would be either the AGM-154A-1 (which swaps the cluster munitions for a single 500lb warhead) and the 154C. However I don’t think any aircraft we have in game actually mounts these, the A-1 seemed to be aimed for foreign militaries and idk who actually bought them, and the C variant is USN exclusive afaik, so not until the Hornet.
I don’t think the game is ready for cluser munitions. It might be too taxing on the performance, but I guess it’s actually more that the developers think it may be incredibly unbalanced, which I may not really disagree with…
