Hello, long time player but haven’t really posted on the forums, Mods if this doesn’t belong here please let me know or relocate the thread.
This might get drowned out because it’s Patch Day, but I’ve returned because of the new update to check things out, but I seem to have encountered a bug where GBUs with the Paveway II kit don’t pick up the laser designator until under ~1.3km (link to video showing what I’m talking about): https://youtu.be/KCbK9nmdnfs
Apologies for the lack of polish on the video, if there’s any issues viewing it please let me know
At first I thought the laser was just out of the bomb seeker’s FOV, but as you can see it still tracks the laser once the bomb is under 1.3km, even when it appears to overshoot our undershoot outside of the seeker’s FOV. So this seems likely to be an issue with acquisition range.
I’ve also tested GBU-10s and 12s and they behave the same way.
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I’ve also been getting this issue. It seems to affect all laser guided bombs.
I think this may be intentional, Paveway 1 & 2 use what’s called a “bang-bang” control system (meaning it is either fully on, or fully off, it can’t do fine corrections) attached to large control fins. This means that when it maneuvers it starts to wobble as it constantly over corrects itself creating a lot of drag and reducing its range. To prevent this IRL it is typically dropped as a “dumb” bomb with the guidance laser off, once it gets close to its target the laser is turned on to steer the bomb in for a precise hit.
I believe Gaijin is trying to replicate this artificially as players that don’t understand this have been complaining about the range of the Paveway 2.
This shouldn’t affect Paveway 3 as it has a more expensive control system that can make fine corrections without creating excessive drag, I don’t have any Paveway 3s unlocked in game to test though.
paveway III now has no IOG feature at all. it either fly away or to ground the second the laser guidance stops. also the damage bug years old still there (easy to reproduce examples of only blackening barrel/track)
This wouldn’t explain why it happens to all guided bombs, not just Paveways. I also tested it on Paveway 3 and it happens to them too.
It probably is still an intentional move by Gaijin to nerf guided bombs and prevent people using them from the relative safety of high altitude. They should announce it some where though as it really does just seem like a bug, especially when they worked perfectly fine before.
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Acquisition range of the laser seeker depends on several factors. First of course being the seeker itself, which in this case has a max detection range of only ~3.7km. Then the second is the laser designator source itself, the targeting pod in this case.
I’ve done a bit of testing as well, and most of the problems lays with the latter. This used to be less of a problem because laser seeker ranges were set to 7km, meaning the seeker was almost twice as sensitive. But now at 3.7km, the designator’s range to the target matters more. The further you are away, the weaker the laser becomes, the worse the acquisition range becomes of the GBU. From my own tests, I got about a mere 0.7km detection range on the GBU when designating from 17km away. Whereas, I got the full 3.7km (maybe it was even 4km+) when designating at <5km.
So when doing long range tossing, it’s best to fly towards your target (not a great idea really) to achieve longer GBU laser acquisition ranges. Designating at ~10km probably gives you about the best mix of GBU acquisition range and distance to the target, not always ideal however. Also am not sure how realistic these in-game numbers are anyway, but I have no sources to prove otherwise.