Depending on which stores they model, CBU’s could appear at a very low BR(PTAB’s found on various Russian aircraft being practically the only historical example) as there are a number of time traveling Airframes so deleting entire columns of oncoming armor and bases shouldn’t be too hard the only thing I think that may need adjusting would be the effective TNT equivalence.
Though of course the effectiveness will heavily depend on how dispersion & delivery / fuse constraints are modeled as they will make determine their impact, though I could see some modification to the 3rd person torpedo sight being done as it already has most of the required elements in place.
A fairly exhaustive overview of various US designed Dispensers and Cluster bombs (also the new forums prevented me from uploading the .PDF directly for some reason), though many would carry the CBU-1/A or -2/A (both antipersonnel bomblets using the SUU-7 dispenser), not the Anti-tank CBU-3 so performance against tanks would be limited
But yeah even just getting just the Rockeye (Mk20 / CBU-99 / -100) (247 submunitions per bomb) is going to massive since they can be carried on a MER/TER meaning that say an F-4 could take 24 of them & the normal complement of Missiles, and can cover a significant area(325[100m] by 125ft[38m] at its most dense; 300ft[91m] AGL, level delivery through 400[120m] by 280ft[85m] at 3000ft[910m]) let alone if more than one is deployed at a time so the dispersion patterns overlap.
Rockeye was also cleared for use on Jaguar GR.1A/B and the Harrier IIs, so we’ve got a few options for clusters on British aircraft. Looking forward to it. Will make hitting vehicle columns in air rb alot easier in a single pass.
Was the CBU-59 APAM also cleared? it’s the same dispenser filled with 717 BLU-77 AP/ AM bomblets, which appear to be M118’s with a pyrophoric zirconium liner.
They were all converted to GR.7s by 1994 but TIALD integration on Harrier didn’t really start until 1996. Which would mean no Paveways and such precision goodies that warrant the GR.7s BR.
Initially GR.7s on Op Deliberate Force relied on Jaguars to buddy-lase for them
Doubtful if GR.5 had BOL either. So if it can’t pump out flares like a GR.7 does that would definitely warrant a BR reduction.
They carried Phimat (can be seen with the GR.5 at Ex. Red Flag). But not seen a GR.5 with BOL, and even though SAOEU GR.7s at Boscombe Down were testing BOL as early as 1992, I am fairly sure it was still being evaluated for Harrier when the GR.5s were withdrawn and upgraded. LAU-7s seem to be the norm for frontline GR.7 squadrons until the latter half of 1996. The GR.7s deployed on Op. Warden in 1994 were still using LAU-7 and Phimat with ne’er a BOL in sight.
GR.5 manual does mention BOL, but it was long before the BOL IRCM. But I doubt that would be a limitation in game as I believe I read the F-14B BOL was only ever used with chaff.
Now its been a year since the Harrier Gr7 was added, is it time to nudge the devs about getting the Sniper Targetting pod or more modern and accurate AGMs?
Made sense at the time why they did that, but a lot has changed in the past year.
I imagine it wouldn’t come outside of a major update, I’m glad to hear they’re working on it, but I hope we finally get something polished that won’t need months of tweaking to work properly… *looks at tornado FM/all the issues we had with Harrier’s targeting systems
