Cluster Bombs - a first look

Dev Server "Eagle's Shadow" General Discussion - Dev Server
1

So far I haven’t read much about the newly added CBU’s here, although they are quite significant, in my eyes.

They up to now only have been added to very few airframes, F-15E and EX and the A-10’s for US, not sure if the Russians also got some.

The US CBU is the CBU-87 /B CEM (Combined Effect Munition), which dispenses 202x BLU-97/B Combined Effects Bomblets, designed to be used against armor, people and soft skinned targets.

I tried the CBU-87 in Dev with the A-10, and it is really a powerful weapon against soft skinned targets, and will come in handy agains massed ground targets e.g. in Sim EC, Nuclear Escalation and other air-only game modes.

So far have not managed to kill any MBT’s with it, light tanks and trucks however stand little chance to survive such a cluster bomb attack.

What is however to be mentioned is the (current) release pattern: The Dispensers open very quickly after release, and continuing straight and level will rip your aircraft apart immediately, especially on lower releases.

What however works best to survive one’s own CBU drop ist to immediately and agressively break sideways or upwards, to evade the bomblets.

Here I hope the devs will consider adding at least an approximation of the real weapons possibility to set the dispensing altitude and pattern, still simplified, but maybe similar to bomb fuses, but with altitudes of the opening of the canisters selectable (and of course also affecting pattern).

And of course I very much hope and expect further types to be added, to all the aircraft that carried them!

So, what are your thoughts and observation s about the CBU’s? = )

grafik
My favourite future Warthog loadout: 6x Mav’s to decimate AA, 4x CBU-87 against the soft targets (which often are tricky to find in Sim…), and 6x Mk.82 for tank plinking…

6 Likes
2

Are the bomblets not effective against light armor and spaa? They have a shaped charge with 280g of explosive and an incendiary element. Should be devastating

3

Targets that aren’t tanks they can demolish just fine, assuming something hits.

4

They feel like they dispense way too few bomblets

4 Likes
5

wonder if gaijin is modeling the near 17% dud rate from the gulf war lmao. They are supposed to contain 202 bomblets even if 17% were duds that would still be a lot of damage over a large area.

3 Likes
6

I have exactly once

by dropping all 24 from ~800m directly above them, it managed to kill 1 MBT and me

7

they open way too early too, so they are dropping too few, and too weak of bomblets over a wider area


4 Likes
8

For tanks which cbu would they need to add? CBU-97?

9

Why do they deploy so high up and have so few bomblets?

10

CBU-87 should kill them easily

each has 202 bomblets that are ~200mm pen HEAT with a frag sleeve and incendiary element

3 Likes
11

they did say on the dev stream that they workerd better on more shallow angles, it could be still work in progress

12

Sounds like it should work against most tanks. Do composite armors include roof nera?

13

they should absolutely not open at ~10,000m

4 Likes
14

Cluster munitions do not damage bases, and my bug report on it was shot down directly by a dev without an answer

meaning it would be useless in air RB, and not even scratch airfields, and maybe even depots in NE

3 Likes
15

they should be damaging bases but not by much. They should be equivalent to 50kg bombs more or less.

1 Like
16

Currently they do absolutely nothing

And much like Napalm, they should do more against structures than their HE content would otherwise suggest

1 Like
17

Which explosive do they have in game PBXN-107 or Cyclotol

18

What other nations are getting clusters? Russia the KMGU? Sweden maybe getting the BK90?

1 Like
19

there is a bunch on the files, but on the dev is just the americans

20

currently on the dev its only the A-10 and F-15EX with Clusters

but French, British, russian and more US clusters are in the files