Brimstone Missiles

Whenever you think there’s no bias, they come up with ridiculous stuff to justify ridiculous decisions. “Brimstone fire and forget would be too op”. Meanwhile Pantsir is A-OK. Su34 with fire and forget is A-OK. Not to mention artificially nerfed radar on the EF2000

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It would of been Lock on After Launch.

I also would rather them model things correctly rather than give weapons a fake guidance system.

They should not “just give brimstone IR lock”. They should of waited until the game was ready for the brimstone, and other lock on after launch weapons, to be added.

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Can’t wait for USN F-18 with brimstones

F-18 has brimstones?

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Marines would maybe use JAGMs

It’s a super hornet, navy jet

But yes, the marines probably would use JAGM

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BTW, why do I see Brimstone PNL in the game, when most of the CAS films about the plane uses SAL version?

the best solution can be a short operetional zone for the launch, similar to the drone (8000) or maybe more short (5000) and leave the radar system, it’s hard to enter in the operetional area for the spaa, so you can obtain a great reward if you manage that

Additionally, MMW band blocking smoke formulations do exist. The issue is that not all countries have an equivalent as far as I can find, though it wouldn’t be the first or last time systems are simplified for balance reasons.

The advanced development program for the M81 grenade was conducted from 1987 to 1992. In the transition to full scale development, the Operational Requirements Document (ORD) required the grenade to provide IR and MM instead of just MM protection The Grenade, Launcher, Smoke: Millimeter/Infrared (MM/IR) Screening, M81 was type classified in 1995 and is scheduled to begin production in 1998.

and so in effect they be modeled the same as existing IIR seekers “under the hood”.

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Hey all,

I’m a big sim player and one of the main issues I have with the brimstone in it’s current state is just how insignificant it is when compared to other CAS systems in enduring confrontation.

The 6 maverick + 2 GBU loadout, the GBU39 loadout, and the KH38 or Grom 2 loadouts that other comparable aircraft get allow them to burst 6 or more ground targets at once, while also not having to commit to guiding the weaponry in, and be heading home for more ordinance as soon as the weapons have been fired/dropped. The brimstone carrier on the other hand has to loiter on target and guide each brimstone in which takes longer and puts the carrier aircraft at much higher risk, for much slower returns.

It is also worth noting that chaining brimstones is not as easy as chaining hellfires on a heli, or chaining KH38MLs and KH25MLs: The hellfires are easy to chain since the platform carrying them doesn’t get closer to the target in between launches, leaving a useable gap in between each missile determined by the user. The KH38MLs/KH25MLs also maintain very good pace until hitting the target, meaning a chained missile fired closer to the target still won’t catch up to the first missile unless fired at extreme range. The brimstone on the other hand runs out of booster fuel quickly, and then slows down like a brick in mud to the point where I often find chained brimstones often get very close to each other despite being fired with seperation, which means you cannot hit multiple targets consistently.

The praise I will offer the brimstone though, is in ground battles against SAMs. Here both the lofting characteristics and extremely slow speed actually enable you to launch a brimstone with IOG over a ridgeline or just very low to the ground, turn away, wait until the brimstone approaches the target, and then turn back towards the target and pop up to lase the brimstone in the last 7-10 seconds of flight before a SAM can respond. This can also be done effectively with the paveway IV though, and is not an exclusive feature to the brimstone.

Anyway, just offering some food for thought and my two cents on the subject.
Do with it what you will.
Cheers all,
Sebdspy

Theoretically The Brimstone has a significant “magazine depth” advantage against the mobile target set; like Convoys in comparison to the GBU-39/B, since the Laser-SDB I & SDB II are not implemented (yet, GBU-53/B is in the files). Though currently needs to take the time to pick them, off one at a time which balances them, not that a LOBL profile (even if not actually present IRL) would be too good in my option even with the way things are, considering the reduced range that MMW seekers have (approx. 6km limit).
Assuming of course as previously mentioned above, IR / MMW obscuring formulations of smoke were provided globally to provide some counter in GRB / GSB.

The GBU-39/B is sufficient against massed static targets. And the Grom 2 is good against armored / area profiles with the large warhead.

couldnt aircraft radar provide LOBL past 6km?

Yes, that’s LOAL (Lock-On After Launch) though, it would use GPS / INS to travel to the target area and then turn the seeker on.

so aircraft radar in a2g mode cannot provide missile with track on a moving ground target? maybe this is only for newer AESA like APG-82?

It’s not a SARH missile, also as MMW is a shorter wavelength than “X band” it can’t be directly driven off the main radar like a Sparrow can be.

It would only be able to use the onboard radar to get where to look for the target with it’s own seeker.

dont some newer missiles have datalink between missile and aircraft, that it could use to possibly direct the missile? maybe not for brimstone 1 but maybe the 2/3 could have this ability

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Typhoon undertakes live firing test of MBDA’s Spear next generation miniature cruise missile - AGN.
looks like SPEAR 3 has it

Yes, but it’s not often that high a bandwidth and only really used for “Impact assessment” or “retargeting”.

It’s not going to be directly command guiding a missile without a dedicated datalink like the AN/AWW-9 / -13 (e.g. AGM-62ERDL), or AXQ-14 / ZSW-1 (GBU-15) could.

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idk this also says GBU-53 has mid course update capability through 2-way DL, so it should be possible to use the radar to extend the hard lock range of a SDB II, SPEAR 3, and presumably Brimstone 3

Hey Tripod,

you make reasonable points, but if you’re going convoy hunting remember the GBU39 carriers can all also bring Mavericks (x6 for most) which is more than enough to destroy every AA in the convoy. After the first pass you can then mop up the rest with rockets, other GBUs or even guns + dumb bomb. The process is quicker though per convoy than brimstones because you can efficiently wipe 6 targets incl. AA in the first pass. For the Grom carriers they also have TV guided bombs and the fantastic KH38MTs that they can again remove all AA in one pass with.

If we look at brimstone in an EC ground battle, you can bring more GBU39s than brimstones, and wipe the whole battle in one pass. If you don’t, you have 6x mavericks or other FnF weapons and can remove the AA in one pass and then clean up with dumb bombs, rockets and guns. (I feel like that initial burst gives you enough lead that the brimstone user won’t keep up at that point).

If they gave brimstone a LOBL mode for 6km, then you’d at least be able to compete against the ground battles where the AA has a much shorter effective range and ripple off multiple targets with some risk tradeoff for less loiter time/more burst. If you gave it the ability to LOAL (dual mode NOT mode 3) then that would also make it a lot more competitive as well without giving it the overpowered full seek and destroy LOAL mode 3. Currently though, the brimstone doesn’t compete against convoys and it doesn’t compete against EC ground battles.

The brimstone isn’t a bad weapon, it’s just not remotely competitive in EC. More competitive in ground against AA systems, but still not as competitive as other options.

Cheers,
Sebdspy

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